New Zealand’s Tom Bruce is all set to play for the Sussex County Cricket Club in the upcoming T20 Blast, as the Club has announced the signing of the dynamic batsman on Wednesday (6 June) to cope with the absence of injured Stiaan van Zyl for the entire season.

Bruce who will be available for all 14 games of Sussex's T20 Blast campaign, has played 14 T20Is for the Black Caps and amassed 958 runs at an average of 28.17 since making his debut in 2017.

There are high chances of South African Stiaan  van Zyl to miss the T20 Blast with a knee injury and Sussex is hoping to fill his absence by Bruce in their upcoming campaign, as the Kiwi has already the experience of playing in the English conditions having played in the Surrey Premier League and league cricket here.

As per reports in BBC, Sussex head coach Jason Gillespie said, “We have secured Tom's services for our whole Vitality Blast campaign, which we are pretty excited about. Tom has experience on the biggest stage with New Zealand and is exactly the type of dynamic middle order stroke maker we're looking for. The injury to Stiaan van Zyl forced us to reassess our squad and we've decided that we need to bring in a quality overseas batsman for the duration of the tournament.”

He further said of Bruce, “He goes pretty hard, looks to get the scoreboard ticking pretty quick. We think he will be great in the dressing room. He is excited about it and part of our agreement is he has made himself available for all our practice games leading into the Blast so the lads will get to know him.”

The 26-year-old right-hander might make his County debut with Sussex against Essex at Chelmsford on 4 July, while joining the squad this Friday (8 June) against the 2018 Aboriginal XI at Hove.