English county side Surrey announced Tuesday they have signed Pakistani seam bowler Rao Iftikhar Anjum as early season cover for India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

Rao Iftikhar, 29, has played Pakistan in one-day recent years and currently has a first-class average of 23.87 with 388 wickets in 96 matches.

He will join up with Surrey at the start of the 2010 season and be available for the first three County Championship matches of the year against Derbyshire at the Brit Oval; away at Hove against Sussex and the festival match against Worcestershire at Whitgift School.

During this time, Piyush Chawla will be representing the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League.

Surrey manager Chris Adams said he hoped Rao could make the most of early season English conditions, which tend to favour pace bowlers as the club look to improve on a record which saw them win just one match in the second division of last season's County Championship.

"Signing someone with the experience and proven wicket taking abilities of Rao Iftikhar will allow us to add a bit of quality to the squad and is very much in line with the signings that we have already made since the end of the 2009 season," Adams said in a Surrey statement issued Tuesday.

"Along with his impressive stats I believe Rao is the type of bowler who will perform well in English conditions and with Pakistan touring (England) later in the year, he has a terrific opportunity to lay down a marker for selection," the former England batsman added.

"He can swing the ball well, has a very repeatable action and consistently bowls in the mid to high eighties (mph). We look forward to his arrival."

Several Pakistan bowlers, including Intikhab Alam, Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq, have represented Surrey and Rao Iftikhar said: "Playing for an English county has long been an ambition of mine and am I very much looking forward to joining Surrey in the coming weeks.

"Some of the greatest Pakistani bowlers of recent times have played for Surrey and I am honoured to be following in their footsteps."

AFP

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