Muirhead rejoins St Kilda after two weeks playing with a Cricket Australia invitational XI against the touring English Ashes team in exhibition matches in Sydney and Alice Springs.

His prized scalp captured was that of Kevin Pietersen.

Saints coach Adrian Jones said Muirhead was definitely an exciting young gun that should impress Ballarat crowds for the Victorian Premier Cricket “bush bash” triple-header at Eastern Oval.

“James is a handy bowling acquisition and late order batsman if needed,” Jones said.

“We’ve got some good and bad news heading to Ballarat – we reclaim James Muirhead ... unfortunately we’ve lost one of our more prolific batsmen in Andrew McGuinness, who scored a lot of runs in the Twenty20 for us last season.

“He’s out until after Christmas.”

St Kilda will face Greendale Kangaroos and Dandenong in the first Twenty20 matches this season.

Dandenong will boast Australian Test fast bowler James Pattinson, who will only bat in his comeback from a stress fracture in his back.

Players will start to arrive in town this afternoon to lead specialist coaching clinics for Ballarat juniors.

Ballarat Cricket Association club grades will play on Sunday in a bid to support the bush bash.

Ballarat-Redan and Mt Clear will play tomorrow at City Oval due to the Mounties state Twenty20 commitments.

DRAW

9.30am: St Kilda v Dandenong

1pm: Greenvale Kangaroos v St Kilda

4.30pm: Dandenong v Greenvale Kangaroos.