Worcestershire sign Mohammad Hasnain to "blast teams out"

Hasnain is set to be available for the last six matches of the County Championship season

Worcestershire have signed Mohammad Hasnain for the back end of their LV= Insurance County Championship campaign to help them "blast teams out".

The 22-year-old Pakistani fast bowler hasn't played since late January after being reported while at the Big Bash for a suspect bowling action, but he was cleared earlier this month and has also signed to play in The Hundred for Oval Invincibles.

Hasnain is set to be available for the last six matches of the season, with the county's cricket steering group chairman, Paul Pridgeon, declaring that Worcestershire "are going to have a real crack at the Championship". Hasnain will not be available to face Glamorgan this weekend but is set to debut against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors' School in mid-July.

He has only made six first-class appearances in his career but is the latest Pakistani seamer to sign up to the 2022 county summer, following in the footsteps of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir and Haris Rauf.

Hasnain has played eight ODIs and 18 T20Is for Pakistan since making his debut in both formats in 2019.

^{Former Pakistan captain Azhar Ali is Worcestershire's other overseas player in red-ball cricket (Michael Steele/Getty Images)}

"We've played a patient game with the overseas players and tried to plot our way through the season," said Alex Gidman, Worcestershire's head coach, who added that Azhar Ali, the former Pakistan captain who is also on the club's staff this summer, has helped with "a bit of research".

"He spoke very, very highly of him as a young man and as a character and his skillset as well. He is going to be exactly what the group needs, some real power and energy.

"The longer the season goes on, the harder it becomes, so to have some fresh impetus when we really need it is going to be good for the guys. He bowls very quick, so a different skill set to what we have, and he will hopefully give us a chance of winning more games.

"If anything, the way the wickets have been around the country, at times it has exposed our country's weaknesses, which are raw pace and spin."

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