The Hobart Hurricanes have signed Afghan left-arm wrist spinner Waqar Salamkheil after Rishad Hossain became unavailable for the duration of BBL|14 due to the Bangladesh Premier League.
Salamkheil has most recently played in the Caribbean Premier League in October for the Trinbago Knight Riders taking 15 wickets in 11 matches.
The 23-year-old has played plenty of franchise T20 cricket globally, including in the CPL, Pakistan Super League, USA’s Major League Cricket, South Africa’s SA-20 and more.
Salamkheil will leave the Hurricanes after six games before joining the MI Emirates in the ILT20, starting in January.
Making his debut for Afghanistan as a 17-year-old in a Test against Ireland, Salamkheil took two wickets in each innings, to help the Afghans to their first-ever test victory in 2019.
He will be joining teammate Tim David in Hobart this summer, who played with Salamkheil at the Knight Riders in the CPL and also for the MI Emirates in the ILT20.
The Afghan will join the hurricanes’ spin ranks alongside Paddy Dooley and Peter Hatzoglou. His different variations will play a role for the Hurricanes against opposition who are unlikely to have faced him before.
Canes High Performance General Manager Salliann Beams said: “Waqar is a tremendous young talent, he adds a different element to our bowling line-up and is a wrist spinner with a well-disguised wrong-un, similar to Rishad (Hossain).
“While we are disappointed that Rishad can’t join us because of the BPL, we know that we have someone who will help us win matches in the first half of the tournament in Waqar.
“He was on our radar during the draft, with Ricky (Ponting) and (James) Hopsey familiar with his talent after seeing him play in franchise cricket, he will complement what we have in our squad already.”
The Hobart Hurricanes start their BBL|14 campaign in just over three weeks, playing against the Melbourne Renegades at Geelong in their first game.
View all the predicted line-ups here
Strikers – Heat – Hurricanes – Renegades – Stars – Scorchers – Sixers – Thunder
