Hilton Cartwright signs on with Middlesex

Australian allrounder Hilton Cartwright will join Middlesex for the first five games of the county championship, with the potential to stay on deeper into the season.

The 26-year-old, who played two Tests for Australia in 2017, replaces his former Western Australian captain Adam Voges, who served as the Middlesex captain last year.

A hard-hitting, right-handed batsman who has spent the bulk of his first-class career at number three, Cartwright has also been turned to at international level for his medium pace bowling. Conversations between him and the club took place over the course of the last week before a deal was finalised over Easter weekend. As Cartwright also holds a British passport he will not require a visa, and in turn can fly to the United Kingdom this week to join Middlesex before their season opener on April 13.

Cartwright debuted against Pakistan in January 2017 at Sydney and played his second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong in September. He made 37 and 18 in his two innings. At domestic level, he finished the 2017-18 Sheffield Shield in top form, making 83 and an unbeaten 111 against South Australia in Glenelg in March.

It was Cartwright's only first-class century of the Australian summer, averaging 32.5 in 10 matches for his state. But it was his 2016-17 campaign that pushed him into national calculations, accumulating 898 runs at 52.8, the second-best tally among all batsmen. Overall, since making his bow for Western Australia in January 2013, Cartwright averages 43.4 with five centuries to his name and has claimed 19 wickets at 51.

Considered a player of promise across the three formats by national selectors, Cartwright has also played twice for Australia's one-day international side in India last October.