Northants Steelbacks have re-signed Australian batter Chris Lynn for this summer’s T20 Blast as a replacement for Matthew Breetzke.

Lynn scored 880 runs in two previous spells at Wantage Road in 2022 and 2023, including three T20 hundreds.

He played for Hampshire in last summer’s competition, helping them reach the final at Edgbaston before losing to Somerset.

“We all know the class that Lynny will bring to the side, he’s had a lot of success here and we’re hoping for more of the same this summer,” said head coach Darren Lehmann, who has also worked with him at Brisbane Heat.

“His power and ball striking is second to none and he has the ability to take control of games very quickly.”

The 35-year-old has scored more than 8,700 runs in the game’s shortest format and played four ODIs and 18 T20 internationals in 2017-18.

Breetzke was due to play for Northants this summer, but the county decided to look elsewhere because of his potential commitments for South Africa and franchise tournaments in other parts of the world.