The Yorkshire County Cricket Club is delighted to announce the overseas signing of Sri Lankan international fast bowler Vishwa Fernando for the next three Vitality County Championship matches.
Left-armer Fernando, aged 32, returns to county cricket having played for Durham at the back end of last season, taking seven wickets in two matches for the Division Two champions.
The new ball quick has met up with the Yorkshire playing squad, who are currently taking on Sussex at Hove, and will also feature in matches against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, Gloucestershire at Scarborough and Derbyshire at Chesterfield, the latter two late next month.
Fernando’s first wicket in Yorkshire colours will be the 300th of a first-class career which began in 2012.
He has taken 64 wickets in 23 Test Matches since debuting against Australia at Galle in 2016, the latest of which was against Bangladesh in Chattogram at the start of April. He claimed three wickets in a Sri Lanka win.
Fernando, a bowler with a strong action and good pace, has also played eight one-day internationals and a solitary T20 international for his country.
He has a Test best of 5-101 to his name and a first-class best of 5-14. They are two of 10 career five-wicket hauls from his 113 appearances.
Fernando will fill Yorkshire’s second overseas slot in Championship cricket, alongside captain Shan Masood, who was one of his Test wickets when they played against each other at Karachi in 2019.
He played his last first-class match late last month, in Sri Lanka, and has been playing domestic T20 cricket through the first half of May.