Proteas allrounder Farhaan Behardien has signed for English side Leicestershire Foxes in the NatWest T20 Blast the county announced on Thursday.
Behardien was added to the squad as cover for fellow Proteas batsman Rilee Rossouw who picked up a shoulder injury in the tri-series match against Australia on June 7 in the West Indies.
The all-rounder also has an impressive record in the shortest format of the game. In 118 T20 games, Behardien has scored 1,888 runs at an average of 29.04 and possesses a handy strike rate of 123.56.
Behardien offers a handy medium pace option having taken 69 wickets in all formats including three in T20 at an average of 24.00. Those wickets have all come during 25 T20 International appearances for South Africa.
The 32-year-old has also played 45 times for his country in one-day internationals so will bring the Foxes experience and class in the middle order. His first game for the Foxes is scheduled to be against Derbyshire Falcons on Friday, July 8.
Elite Performance Director Andrew McDonald said: “We were keen to add another overseas player to our roster for when Umar was leaving for the Caribbean Premier League and were happy to have secured Rilee's services.
“Unfortunately it was a case of bad timing with the injury, so we have moved quickly to secure a quality replacement in Farhaan. “We were looking for a batsman who can slot straight into Umar's role and feel that Farhaan ticks all of the boxes for us.
We look forward to him joining up with us in due course.”
African News Agency