Gautam Gambhir signs for county side Essex; to play rest of the season

Gautam Gambhir

Essex have announced on their official site that Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir will be joining them for the rest of the county season. The 31-year-old replaces Kiwi Hamish Rutherford as Essex’s overseas player.

Gambhir is expected to make his county debut against Northamptonshire in the Colchester Cricket Festival at Castle Park, and will available for the remaining County Championship and Yorkshire Bank 40 matches in the season.

Essex Head Coach Paul Grayson commented on Gambhir’s signing, “We are delighted with the signing of Gautam Gambhir who is a player with pedigree and high class on the biggest stages in cricket. He will no doubt bring his experience to the squad during an important stage of the season for us in the LV= County Championship and Yorkshire Bank 40 competition.”

“I am delighted to have this chance to make my county cricket debut with Essex,” Gambhir was quoted as saying by the official twitter handle of the county.

Gambhir last played for India in January in the ODI series against England. His last Test too was against the English side in December last year. In this year’s IPL, he was the highest scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders with 406 runs in 16 matches in the T20 league.

The last Indian cricketer to play county cricket was Harbhajan Singh, who too joined Essex last year, before cutting his spell short to leave for the T20 World Cup after national call-up.