Northants turn to legspin with Prasanna recall

Legspinners have never been more in demand when it comes to Twenty20 and Northamptonshire are among the enthusiasts, bringing Seekkuge Prasanna back to Wantage Road for a second season of T20 Blast.

Prasanna last represented Northamptonshire in the 2016 campaign, where he played in 10 matches and took 12 wickets at an average of 24.00 with best bowling figures of 3-24 and an economy rate of 7.02.

Although he might not quite attract the excitement given to Afghanistan's Rashid Khan, or the exciting spin assortment of 16-year-old Mujeeb Zadran, both of whom are heading for IPL, Prasanna's T20 record tells of a wily old campaigner.

In all T20 cricket Seekkuge has scored 1114 runs at an impressive strike-rate of 160.51 and has claimed 78 wickets with an economy rate of 6.87 runs per over.

Northamptonshire's head coach David Ripley certainly thinks he is great: four times over. "It's great to have a quality legspin in your T20 team," he said. "He bowled great for us in 2016 and was great in the dressing room so he'll be a great addition to our campaign."

Prasanna, 32, will be available for the entire T20 Blast campaign with the Steelbacks - starting with Leicestershire at home on July 4.

He represented Sri Lanka in one Test match, against Australia at Pallakele six years ago, but has been a regular in both ODIs and T20s until recently.

He missed Northants' 2017 campaign because of a hamstring injury.