England's Northamptonshire County Cricket Club has announced the signing of Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi for the Vitality T20 Blast 2021.
Nabi will be available for Northamptonshire for the entirety of the 2021 T20 Blast season following his stint with London Spirit in The Hundred, subject to approval by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB).
The 35-year-old off-spinner, who plays in almost every T20 league in the world and currently sits top at the ICC T20I rankings for all-rounders, has previously played for Leicestershire and Kent in 2018 and 2019 respectively in the T20 Blast, and now Northants will be his third county in the competition.
Confirming the signing of the Afghanistan all-rounder, Northants’ director of cricket David Ripley stated: “We're delighted to welcome such a high-profile T20 player as Mohammad Nabi to the club. He has a wealth of experience from playing in so many global tournaments around the world and can completely turn a game with both bat and ball.”
Meanwhile, Northamptonshire’s T20 captain Josh Cobb said Nabi was their number one target for them to solve their middle-order batting problem and now his presence will significantly bolster their batting line-up for the upcoming 2021 season of the T20 Blast.
Cobb said: “Nabi was our number one target for that role, so Rips [David Ripley] and the club has done a great job to get him. We've looked at our middle order as a bit of priority for us, so Nabi was the perfect choice with his power and experience.
Along with bringing in Tom [Taylor] last year, we're now looking pretty strong in that area. They're both three-dimensional players, so they help balance us up a bit and give us plenty of options on the day.”
The captain signed off, “Nabi's a crafty bowler too and has the ability to bowl at any stage during the innings, hopefully, that'll mean less powerplay bowling for me.”
Noteworthy, Nabi has 4,118 runs at a strike rate of over 140 and 267 wickets to his name in T20 cricket.
(With IANS/Cricbuzz Inputs)
