Southampton, March 28 : Hampshire have signed South Africa batter Dewald Brevis for their T20 Blast campaign with the option to play in the County Championship.

The 21-year-old rose to fame in the 2022 ICC Men's U19 World Cup where he scored a mammoth 506 runs with two centuries and three fifties in just six innings.

Since then, he has gone on to represent Mumbai Indians in the IPL, MI New York in MLC, and MI Cape Town in the SA20 along with St Kitts & Nevis Patriots (Caribbean Premier League), and Morrisville Samp Army and New York Strikers (both in the Abu Dhabi T10).

Brevis will join fellow countryman Lhuan-dre Pretorius for the Hawks in the season with the 2022 champions looking to secure a return to Finals Day.

"I'm hugely excited about joining Hampshire Hawks for the Vitality Blast this summer, the team has a great history in the competition, and I look forward to being a part of that," Brevis said in a statement.

"It's great we have Lhuan-dre with us as well and hopefully we can put on a good show and entertain the crowd at Utilita Bowl on our way to reaching Finals Day and lifting the trophy. I'm also looking forward to playing in the County Championship, the team were so close last year, and I hope I can help the club push for the title in 2025," he added.

In his short career to date, Brevis has scored 1,787 runs in 81 T20 matches at an average of 26.27 with a strike rate of 144.93.

He has one century - 162 off 57 balls in the CSA T20 Challenge in October 2022 - and seven fifties.

In this year's SA20, Brevis scored 291 runs - the second most for MI Cape Town and sixth overall - whilst striking at 184.

Brevis has also scored more than 1000 runs in 17 First-Class matches with three hundred and five half-centuries.

"Dewald is an exceptional young player who will add firepower to our batting lineup this summer. He will arrive having enjoyed good recent form, and alongside Lhuan-dre Pretorius we will have two young cricketers that are hungry to make their mark," said Giles White, Hampshire Director of Cricket.

/IANS