LONDON, England (AFP) – Shadab Khan, a Pakistani all-rounder, has signed with Yorkshire to participate in the Twenty20 Blast, the English county said Friday.
The 23-year-old leg-spinner will be able to play in the club’s first five and last six domestic T20 games.
All three forms of international cricket have been played by Shadab for Pakistan, and he has taken 73 wickets and scored at a rate of 136.81 in 64 Twenty20 games.
He will now join Pakistan, Haris Rauf, and aris Rauf at Yorkshire, with the fast bowler available for the first five Blast matches.
“Shadab Khan is a batsman who can bat at the top or in the middle order and can knock the ball a long distance, “Yorkshire interim managing director of cricket Darren Gough said.
“He is also a phenomenal spinner,” remarked the former England fast bowler.
“I’m ecstatic to be traveling to Yorkshire for the Blast,” Shadab stated. For as long as I’ve been playing cricket, I’ve always wanted to play for a big, well-known team.
“It will be much more memorable since I will be able to perform with my dear buddy Haris.”
– Break of balance –
Gary Ballance, on the other hand, is poised to miss the start of Yorkshire’s season in order to focus on his mental health.
The batsman, who played 23 Tests for England between 2014 and 2017, came under fire in November after admitting to using racist comments at former Yorkshire teammate Azeem Rafiq.
Rafiq, a Pakistan-born spinner, accused Yorkshire of failing to appropriately address the harassment he endured while playing for the county, claiming he was pushed to suicidal thoughts.
His allegations resulted in a huge exodus of top corporate officials and coaching personnel at the club, with former Yorkshire quick Gough brought in as the face of a new administration.
Ballance, 32, was born in Zimbabwe and is expected to return to play later this season after a stress-related hiatus in 2020.
“He is still a Yorkshire player,” Gough told the Associated Press news agency in the United Kingdom. “He’s having issues with his mental health; he’s had similar issues in the past.
“We will assist him in whatever way we can in order for him to represent Yorkshire once again this season.”
Gough spoke barely hours after members of Yorkshire’s extraordinary general meeting backed a reform program.
English cricket administrators were so taken aback by Yorkshire’s first reaction to Rafiq’s accusations that they threatened to pull lucrative England games from the club’s Headingley Stadium in Leeds.
However, Thursday’s EGM votes have removed that danger, as Gough stated: “It was a relief to see this happen and now we can go on.”
“It’s about acknowledging the past, never forgetting it, and ensuring that anything like that never happens again.”