London, Sept 1 (IANS): Middlesex have signed India’s off-spin all-rounder Jayant Yadav for the last four matches of the ongoing county championship season. In last year’s county season, Yadav took 12 wickets in two appearances for Warwickshire.
Jayant, 33, has taken 16 wickets at an average of 29.06 in six Test matches for India, with his last appearance coming against Sri Lanka in March 2022. His best figures of 4-49 were against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in December 2021.
“I am honoured and excited to join the prestigious Middlesex County Cricket Club for the upcoming Championship games and be a part of its rich cricketing history. I enjoyed my experience of playing County cricket last year and am eagerly looking forward to the new stint with Middlesex and contributing to the Club's success,” said Jayant in a statement.
With the bat, Jayant has the highest Test score of 104, coming against England in 2016 at Mumbai, and overall, he averages 31 with the bat in nine Test innings. In his first-class career, he has picked an impressive 205 wickets in 75 matches, with best bowling figures of 7-58 for his domestic side Haryana, while hitting three centuries.
Jayant will join Middlesex later this week and be available to play in the first of those four crucial encounters, when the club takes on Essex at Chelmsford next week, and then in the three-remaining red-ball games of the season against Lancashire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.
“With Pieter Malan returning home to South Africa we wanted to bolster the squad with another quality signing ahead of four crucial matches that lay ahead of us in September. We feel that spin will be an important factor in September and the opportunity to sign an international spinner of Jayant’s quality was too good an opportunity to turn down.”
“He brings us that extra bit of something you get from an international cricketer, experience, quality, know-how -– all attributes that will prove hugely valuable to us in the coming games. We can’t wait to have him with us and wish him every success here over the coming month,” said Alan Coleman, Middlesex’s Director of Cricket.
Apart from Jayant, Cheteshwar Pujara and Jaydev Unadkat will be plying their trade for Sussex while B. Sai Sudharsan is scheduled to join Surrey for the remaining time in the County Championship.