Mitchell Marsh, Phil Salt ruled out of Aus T20 League 12

Reigning champions Perth have suffered a massive blow ahead of the forthcoming season of the Australian T20 League as Mitchell Marsh and Phil Salt have been ruled out of the tournament. 

Salt sustained a grade two ligament injury during the final ODI against Australia recently and is out of the reckoning after he was advised rest from a specialist. Marsh on the other hand underwent surgery recently to deal with a long standing ankle injury. The surgery will keep the ace all rounder out of action for a minimum of three months. 

While Marsh played a critical role in Perth winning the title last season, Salt was added to the roster ahead of the twelfth season during the silver round of the inaugural Aus T20 League draft. Perth confirmed that they are on the lookout for replacements ahead of their season opener against Sydney on December 17. 

Faf Du Plessis was the other star player roped in to the Perth squad for the first half of the tournament as a replacement for Laurie Evans, player of the match in the final last season.

"Losing Mitch and Phil so close to the start of the season is very disappointing," Perth General Manager - High Performance, Kade Harvey, said. "Mitch is one of the best ball-strikers in global cricket with an incredible MBBL record, and his leadership and presence around the group is enormous.

"Phil has proven his class for England and in T20 tournaments around the world, so it's unfortunate he won't pull on the orange this summer. We're under no illusions about how difficult it will be to cover the absence of Mitch and Phil, but we take pride in the depth of our squad and have a lot of players capable of stepping up."