England county Gloucestershire on Wednesday announced the signing of Afghanistan spinner Qais Ahmad for the Vitality Blast T20 tournament in 2020.
The 19-year-old will play in all of Gloucestershire’s Vitality Blast matches in 2020 and will be part of the Division One County Championship side for the final six matches of the campaign, the team said.
“I am extremely happy to have signed for Gloucestershire for the T20 Blast and then the County Championship,” Ahmad said.
“It is a great honour for me to join Gloucestershire after they had such a successful 2019. Having played T20 cricket around the world I have always wanted to play first class cricket in England to develop my red ball skills. I am looking forward to working with Richard Dawson.”
The spinner was selected in round four of the draft by Welsh Fire to play in the inaugural Hundred tournament taking place next year.
In February 2019, he was signed by the Hobart Hurricanes for the BBL season. Qais took seven wickets in his three matches, including a best of 3/33 in the Semi-Final against the Melbourne Stars, where he bowled one of the balls of the tournament to dismiss Marcus Stoinis.
Qais was drafted by the Rajshahi Kings in the 2018/19 Bangladesh Premier League and took six wickets in six matches.
Originally, he announced his talents in December 2017 when he became the leading wicket-taker for Afghanistan in the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup with 14 wickets.
Following the tournament, the International Cricket Council (ICC) named Qais as the rising star of the Afghanistan squad.
Gloucestershire Head Coach Richard Dawson said:“I’m delighted that Qais has agreed to join us for next season as the Club enters it’s first season in Division One since 2004.
We had a very strong season in 2019 and Qais will help take us to the next level in both the long and short formats with his game-changing skills.
He’s one of the most exciting young spinners in the world and I’m looking forward to seeing him add a new dimension to our T20 and County Championship squads.”
