Doug Bracewell joins Northamptonshire's promotion push

Doug Bracewell has joined Northamptonshire's promotion push for the final three games of the County Championship season.

New Zealand allrounder Bracewell returns to Wantage Road having represented Northamptonshire in a handful Championship matches last year.

While Northants' head coach, David Ripley, conceded that Bracewell wasn't the club's first target, he was delighted to welcome him back to the club.

"Initially we'd spoken with Kemar Roach to add some more variety and a bit of express pace to our attack, but once that fell down we were keen to get someone of high all-round quality," Ripley said. "Being able to have Doug around for those three games is something we couldn't really resist when we got a whiff he was interested in filling that void for us."

Bracewell has played 125 first-class games, including 27 Test matches for New Zealand. He has claimed 376 wickets and is approaching 4,000 runs.

Bracewell said: "I got the buzz last week from Rips and I'm really excited to come back and hopefully help the lads get promoted to the top div. I really enjoyed my time here last year, even though it was only three or four games. It always helps being in a familiar team with a little taste last year, I'm ready to hit the ground running."

Northamptonshire are currently in position to claim one of the three promotion spots available this season, sitting third on the Division Two table. They play bottom-placed Leicestershire in the first of their three remaining matches starting on Tuesday.

Red ball skipper Adam Rossington was pleased to welcome Bracewell back to the club. "I think Doug's a great signing for us for the last three games and our promotion push," he said. "He brings high quality skill with both bat and ball which we've seen from him before in a Northants shirt."