Pakistani-born Australian batsman Usman Khawaja has signed with the Welsh County Team –Glamorgan for the upcoming T20 Blast, he confirmed on Wednesday (18 April).

The 31-year-old left-hander is the second overseas player of the Welsh county along with Australian Shaun Marsh, who will be available for the entire season, for the English T20 competition. Khawaja will be also available for all 14 group games for the Glamorgan side.

As per reports in AAP, Khawaja told the club’s official website, “I’m delighted to have signed for Glamorgan for their Vitality Blast campaign and look forward to the challenge of helping them build on the success they achieved in last year’s competition. From my point of view, it would be great to be able to take them a step further and bring silverware back to Wales. Glamorgan have some fantastic players in their squad and I can't wait to join up with the team and play with Shaun again.”

Meanwhile, Glamorgan chief executive Hugh Morris said of Khawaja’s signing, “We are delighted he has signed for us. He is a top-class international player and he has shown that this winter in the longer form of the game with Australia. But over the last two years he has performed very well in T20 cricket in the IPL (Indian Premier League) and the Big Bash. He is looking forward to coming here. We have done well in T20 cricket and we wanted to continue that.”

Glamorgan, who finished as the semi-finalists in the tournament last season, will begin their 2018 T20 Blast campaign against Hampshire 6 July.

Khawaja has played 33 Tests and 18 ODIs for Australia and made his T20I debut against India in 2016. However, he has not played much T20Is but has performed well in T20 cricket in the IPL and BBL.