LONDON: Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan has signed to play for Yorkshire in the Twenty20 Blast, the English county announced Friday.
The 23-year-old leg-spinner will be available for the club's first five and last six fixtures of the domestic T20 competition.
Shadab has represented Pakistan in all three international formats, including 64 Twenty20s where he has taken 73 wickets and boasts a batting strike-rate of 136.81.
Subject to obtaining international clearance, he will now join Pakistan team-mate Haris Rauf at Yorkshire, with the fast bowler available for the first five matches of the Blast.
"Shadab Khan is someone who can bat at the top, bat in the middle order and hits the ball a long way," said Darren Gough, Yorkshire's interim managing director of cricket.
"He is also an unbelievable spinner," the former England fast bowler added.
Shadab said: "I'm really excited to be heading to Yorkshire for the Blast. Ever since I started my cricketing journey it has always been a dream of mine to play county cricket.
"It will be made even more special with me being able to play alongside my good friend, Haris."
But Gary Ballance is set to miss the start of Yorkshire's season by taking a break in order to improve his mental health.
The batsman, who featured in 23 Tests for England between 2014 and 2017, faced fierce scrutiny in November after last November after admitting he had used racist language towards former Yorkshire team-mate Azeem Rafiq.
Pakistan-born spinner Rafiq accused Yorkshire of failing to deal adequately with the abuse he suffered while playing for the county side, saying he had been driven to thoughts of suicide.
His revelations led to a mass clear-out of senior boardroom figures and coaching staff at the club, with former Yorkshire quick Gough called in while new chairman Kamlesh Patel became the face of a fresh regime.
Yorkshire hope Zimbabwe-born Ballance, 32, will return to action later in the season, with the left-hander having come back from a stress-related break in 2020.
"He's still a Yorkshire player," Gough told Britain's Press Association news agency. "He's off with his mental health, he's struggled with that in the past as well.
"We will support him in any way possible to hopefully, sometime this season, represent Yorkshire again."
Gough was speaking just hours after Yorkshire's members approved a reform package at an extraordinary general meeting.
English cricket chiefs were so dismayed by Yorkshire's initial response to Rafiq's revelations they threatened to withdraw lucrative England fixtures from Yorkshire's Headingley headquarters in Leeds.
But Thursday's EGM votes mean that threat has been lifted, with Gough saying: "It was a relief that happened and now we can move forward.
"It's about accepting what's happened in the past, never forgetting it and making sure something like that doesn't happen again."
Pakistan's Shadab Khan signs for Yorkshire as Ballance takes a break
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Pakistan's Shadab Khan signs for Yorkshire as Ballance takes a break
- Shadab has represented Pakistan in all three international formats
- 23-year-old leg-spinner says he is excited to be heading to Yorkshire for the Blast
Qatar’s Al-Attiyah wins Stage 6 for Dacia, retakes Dakar lead
- Al-Attiyah, 55, has now completed 19 successive Dakars with at least one stage win every time
RIYADH: Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah will lead the Dakar Rally into its second and final week after winning the sixth stage in the Saudi desert on Friday to take over at the top from South African rival Henk Lategan.
Al-Attiyah, a five-time Dakar winner now competing for the Dacia Sandriders, had been second overnight but turned a deficit of more than three minutes into a 6 minutes and 10 second advantage over the 326km timed stage between Hail and Riyadh.
Saturday is a rest day before the rally resumes in Riyadh on Sunday with seven more stages to the finish in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast on Jan. 17.
Al-Attiyah won Friday’s stage by two minutes and 58 seconds from teammate and nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, Dacia’s first Dakar one-two, with Toyota’s American Seth Quintero third.
Overall, three different manufacturers filled podium positions with Toyota’s Lategan second and Ford’s Nani Roma third — his first time on the virtual podium since 2019.
Al-Attiyah, 55, has now completed 19 successive Dakars with at least one stage win every time.
Friday was his career 49th stage win in the car category — one off the record held jointly by Ari Vatanen and “Mr Dakar” Stephane Peterhansel.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, father of the Formula One driver and a four-time Dakar winner still racing hard at the age of 63, was in fourth place for Ford with teammate Mattias Ekstrom fifth and Loeb sixth.
American Mitch Guthrie, stage winner on Thursday for Ford, dropped to seventh from sixth.
In the motorcycle category there was no change at the top, although leader and defending champion Daniel Sanders was handed a 6-minute penalty for riding at 98kph in a zone limited to 50kph.
KTM rider Sanders now leads Honda’s American Ricky Brabec, the stage winner after the Australian’s penalty, by 45 seconds with Argentine rider Luciano Benavides more than 10 minutes behind in third.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster all day. Unfortunately, I got a speeding penalty, so that will set me back a bit,” said Sanders.
“I just pushed as much as I could today but it’s hard to do good in the sand, especially opening. I did the best I could and I’ve got to stop making silly mistakes. I haven’t pieced this first week together so well.”
