Leicestershire have signed Australia batter Jake Weatherald for the opening block of the County Championship season.<\/p>\n
Weatherald, 31, made his Test debut in the Ashes series against England during the winter.<\/p>\n
He has chalked up 5,784 runs in first-class cricket, including 13 centuries, at an average of 36.84 across 85 matches.<\/p>\n
“I’m absolutely buzzing to join Leicestershire for this first block of the County Championship,” he said. <\/p>\n
“It’s my first taste of county cricket and, honestly, I couldn’t be more excited. <\/p>\n
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has talked about how special the county circuit is – the history, the crowds, the grind – and I’m really looking forward to being part of that. <\/p>\n
“I can’t wait to meet the lads, settle in, and hopefully make a real impact for the Foxes.”<\/p>\n
Weatherald has been playing for Tasmania and was previously with South Australia.<\/p>\n
He has also played Twenty20 cricket for Adelaide Strikers and Pakistan Super League team Quetta Gladiators.<\/p>\n
Leicestershire head coach Alfonso Thomas said: “He’s had a brilliant few years and showed during the Ashes that he can perform on the biggest stage. <\/p>\n
“His first\u2011class record speaks for itself – he scores runs, he plays positively and he brings real competitiveness to the top order. <\/p>\n
“We believe he’ll slot straight into the group and make a strong impact on and off the field.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leicestershire have signed Australia batter Jake Weatherald for the opening block of the County Championship season. Weatherald, 31,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-504020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}