Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, who retired from international cricket last year will play in the upcoming NatWest T20 Blast in England. Somerset County Cricket Club have signed him for 12 of their 14 group matches.
Mahela will have a major influence both on and of the field – Matt Maynard
Somerset director of cricket Matt Maynard said, "Mahela is a batsman of undoubted class who scores his runs all around the wicket. When a player of his experience and class becomes available, you have to snap them up. He is an experienced international captain and the squad will certainly benefit from having him around the dressing room."
"He is a true professional and will have a major influence both on and off the field for us during the NatWest T20 Blast campaign. To have the top two run-scorers in the history of the ICC World T20 walking out into the middle at Taunton is something that I hope the Members and supporters will be looking forward to!"
The Somerset County Cricket Club has welcomed the former Lankan captain on Twitter.
I hope to bring success to this historic club – Mahela Jayawardene
After joining the historic county club the 38-year-old said, "Somerset is a really good club with a long history and I hope that I can help bring success to the county. The club has a tradition of successful overseas players and I will be doing my best to join that illustrious list."
The Colombo-born player has played in 149 Test matches in his illustrious career and scored 11,814 runs at an average of 49.84 with the highest score of 374. He also flourished in the limited-overs format as well, he has featured in 448 ODIs and scored 12,650 runs at an average of 33.37 with the highest score of 144.
Jayawardene also left his mark on the shortest format of the game. He represented his nation in 55 T20Is and scored 1493 runs at an average of 31.76 and with a strike-rate of 133.18. He also has a T20I hundred to his name.
The right-handed batsman still holds the record for the most runs in the ICC World T20 as he has scored 1.016 runs in 31 matches at an average of almost 40 and with a strike-rate of 134.74. The second man on that list is Chris Gayle, who has scored 911 runs in 26 matches. The big-hitting Jamaican will join Jayawardene at the County Ground in Taunton this summer.
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