He's known for his myriad of slower balls but Perth Scorchers paceman Andrew Tye will be somewhat of a speed demon during the BBL season.
A long-term elbow injury kept Tye out of last summer's domestic T20 campaign, meaning he hasn't featured for the Scorchers for 673 days.
That streak will end on Saturday when he lines up against the Melbourne Renegades at Blundstone Arena.
Tye worked on his bowling technique during his recovery from elbow surgery and the benefits have been enormous.
The experienced paceman can bowl up to 10km/h faster now, and he came close to nudging the 145km/h mark during his recent T20 appearance for Australia against India in Sydney.
Tye, who turns 34 on Saturday, feels the extra pace will make his slower balls even more effective.
"I was actually talking to Mitchell Johnson earlier just trying to jibe him that I was quicker than he is, but he wasn't having any of it," Tye said with a laugh.
"I still don't think I'm in the realms of those absolute speedsters but it's nice to feel like the ball is coming out and surprising a few batsmen."
Tye found that when his normal pace dropped to the low 130s, his slower ball lost much of its effectiveness.
"The last Big Bash I played I felt like I lost a little bit of my zip," he said.
"When I was bowling a lot closer to the 140km/h mark (recently), it then made my slower balls a lot more effective because the batsmen couldn't just sit on my slower ball and adjust to my slightly quicker ones, which at that stage were around 130-135km/h.
"So now that I'm pushing that speed gun up a bit they have to be ready for my normal pace or stock ball, and then they have to adjust to the slower ball."
Tye will team up with Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff in a formidable Scorchers pace attack.
All three have endured their injury woes in recent times.
Richardson only just recently recovered from a second operation on his right shoulder, while Behrendorff has been plagued by back stress fractures in recent years.
