Agar out of T20 Blast with fractured ankle

Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar has been ruled out of the remainder of the T20 Blast with Birmingham Bears after fracturing his ankle during warm-ups on Sunday and faces a tight schedule to be fit for the start of the Australia season.

Agar, who plays for Western Australia and Perth Scorchers, picked up the injury ahead of the match against Yorkshire and it was subsequently found that he suffered a small fracture to his right ankle along with ligament damage.

The Australian men's domestic season starts on September 21 when Western Australia host Victoria in a Marsh One-Day Cup match at the WACA which leaves Agar six weeks to recover.

Paul Farbrace, Warwickshire's sport director, said: "We're obviously very disappointed to lose Ash after he made such a great impression on and off the field. He will soon return to Australia to start his rehabilitation programme and we all wish him the very best."

Before joining Birmingham he had been part of the Australia A squad for the one-day leg of their tour and bowled with the World Cup squad to help them to prepare to face Shakib Al Hasan.

He took six wickets in four matches for Australia A before collecting three in his first four T20 Blast matches where he also produced some handy performances with the bat from the middle order.

Agar last played for Australia during last year's T20I series against Pakistan in the UAE although was part of the one-day squad for the South Africa one-day series last November without getting a game.

When he was dropped for the next one-day series, against India in January, he took a swipe at the selectors for a lack of communication. "I got told pretty much just keep trying to get better," he said. "That's what I was told. I guess I mustn't have run the drinks well enough last time, because I didn't really get a crack at that before."

He then suffered an injury mid-way through the Big Bash which ended his season and he lost his Cricket Australia contract in April but selection for the A squad showed he remained in the selectors' thoughts.