Sydney Sixers will be without Tom Curran and Joe Denly for surge into BBL finals

The Sixers will be without English stars Tom Curran and Joe Denly for their BBL finals charge after shooting to second spot on the ladder through Pommy power.

Sydney Sixers Tom Curran pictured at Coogee Beach Tuesday January 22 2019 Picture: Monique Harmer.

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Never has the health and fitness of the England One Day squad mattered so much to the Sydney Sixers.

No team in the Big Bash this season owes more to the old enemy than the Sixers after their three imports Joe Denly, Tom Curran and James Vince have helped the men in magenta climb to second place on the ladder.

If the Sixers make the playoffs, they will have to do so without Denly and Curran, who have both been picked in England’s ODI squad to play the West Indies next month.

Vince was opening the batting for England as recently as six months ago but wasn’t picked for the series in the Caribbean and now the Sixers are sweating he doesn’t get a late call up after his stunning performance in Sunday’s win over the Heat.

In just his third game in the BBL, Vince pounded a match winning 75 off 46 deliveries to provide some much needed stability to the Sixers shaky top order after replacing Denly, who made an unbeaten 76 in his last outing before joining England in the Caribbean.

Curran has been in top form for the Sixers this season. Picture by Monique Harmer.

Curran, who took 3-16 against the Heat to take his season tally to 14 wickets while also averaging 35 with the bat, will play out the rest of the regular season before heading to the West Indies.

Vince will remain in Australia as long as the Sixers are still in the competition and hopes his performances aren’t going unnoticed by his national selectors.

“I played the last one-dayer of the (English) summer so I guess I’m in and around the squad,” he said.

“The one-day side is tough side to get into at the moment and I don’t see that changing necessarily.

Vince has steadied the Sixers top order. AAP Image/Steve Christo.

“I have to try and push my case so if there are injuries or form, I’m the next cab off the rank.”

Considered long shots at the start of the campaign, the Sixers are now perfectly placed to return to the playoffs after missing out last season.

They play the competition leading Hurricanes.at the Sydney Cricket Ground confident of winning after almost beating them in Hobart earlier in the season.

“They’ve obviously got a few batters in red hot form and that’s been a huge key to their success but we’ll have our plans like we did before,” Curran said.

“We had a couple of chances then that we should have taken and I think that would have got us over the line so we’ll take confidence from that.”

The Sixers players will all wear special jersey honouring young cancer patients

and survivors with three words emblazoned on the back from the young person they are playing for as part of the team’s support for the Sony Foundation’s youth cancer program.

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