Azhar signs 7-match deal with Somerset

LAHORE: Azhar Ali, Pakistan’s Test opener, will make his first appearances in the County Championship later this summer after signing a seven-match deal with Somerset that will take him through to the end of the season.

Azhar, who had been in Somerset’s sights since the end of Pakistan’s Test tour in May and June, has been signed as a replacement for the Australian Matt Renshaw, who made three centuries at 51.30 in the opening rounds of the Championship before breaking a finger against Surrey at Guildford last month.

Renshaw had himself been signed as a replacement for his fellow Australian opener, Cameron Bancroft, who was withdrawn from availability in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in March.

Azhar himself endured a lean time during Pakistan’s three Tests against Ireland and England earlier this season, making 73 runs in six innings with a solitary fifty during Pakistan’s memorable victory at Lord’s.