Ashton Agar targeting Finals Day as he agrees Steelbacks return for 2025 Blast

The 31-year-old played six times for Northants in the 2024 campaign after coming as a late replacement for Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza, with his final match the quarter-final defeat to Somerset at the County Ground.

A hard-hitting batter and wily left-arm spinner, it has been announced Agar will return to Wantage Road after putting pen to paper on a deal that will see him available for the entire 14-match North Group campaign.

And the Melbourne-born player, who is currently playing for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League, is setting his sights on helping the Steelbacks to go at least one step further than last year, and reach Finals Day at Edgbaston.

“I’m very pleased to be back with the Steelbacks in 2025,” said Agar. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time here last year and it was a lot of fun playing in front of the Northamptonshire fans.

“We went on a good run last year so I’m excited to be heading back and hopefully we can do well and make a Finals Day.”

Agar's signing means the Steelbacks' overseas slots for the North Group campaign have now been filled, with South Africa batter Matt Breetzke's return having already been confirmed in October.

His return to Wantage Road also means that Agar will once again be teaming up with new Northants head coach Darren Lehmann, who was head coach of Australia when Agar made his Test debut against England at Trent Bridge in 2013.

Lehmann also handed Agar his Australia debuts in One Day International and T20 International cricket.

While with the Steelbacks last year, Agar mainly caught the eye with the bat in hand, achieving of a strike rate of more than 190 from his six innings.

He played a key role during the final group fixtures, hammering 31 from just 14 balls in the rain-affected win at Durham, as well as striking the winning runs in the Steelbacks' win against Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford.

The Steelbacks won four of the final five group games that Agar featured in.

Chief executive Ray Payne is delighted Agar is coming back to the Northampton, and said: “Ashton is a brilliant individual who played a very important role in our good form at the backend of the T20 Blast last year.

“He is highly skilled, very experienced and has had success at the very highest level of the game. We’re all very excited to him again in a Steelbacks shirt in 2025.”

Agar has played 49 times in T20 cricket for Australia, claiming 49 wickets at 23.04 apiece, while in other T20s he has played 166 times.

With the ball he has claimed 133 wickets at 29.06 and an economy rate of 7.18, with a career-best haul of six for 30.

With the bat, Agar has hit 1,357 runs at an average of 16.34, with a strike rate of 117.48, scoring a couple of half-centuries along the way. His top score is 68.