Surrey sings Spencer Johnson for Vitality T20 Blast 2024

Surrey have signed Australia speedster Spencer Johnson for the first eight fixtures of the Vitality Blast.

The left arm pacer, who failed to make the final cut for Australia’s T20 World Cup squad, is familiar to south London as he represented Oval Invincibles last summer. He claimed a fifer for Invincibles in their triumphant 2023 campaign, including an exceptional 3 for 1 off 20 balls against the Manchester Originals. He is currently playing in the Indian T20 League for Gujarat. 

Johnson’s signing comes as Surrey look to strengthen their squad, which will be without four of their regular starters namely Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Reece Topley and Chirs Jordan concerning England’s T20 WC squad. They also suffered a massive blow in March when Australian all rounder Aaron Hardie withdrew from three months in hopes of managing his workload. Johnson will accompany Sean Abbott as the foreign options, with a maximum of three allowed in the squad and two in the playing XI. 

“I'm very excited to join Surrey and I have some fantastic memories from playing at the Kia Oval last year," Johnson said. "Surrey have a great squad and I can't wait to contribute with the ball in front of the packed out crowds in south London."

Surrey's director of men's cricket, Alec Stewar said: "Spencer is a highly talented cricketer who has shown his skills in white-ball cricket at the highest levels. He will add strength to our bowling unit in the first part of the group stages when we have four players away at the World Cup with England."

In spite of missing international selection for next month’s World Cup in the Caribbean and USA, Johnson remains to be one the most desired players in the T20 circuit. Gujarat was bought for a whopping AU$1.78million (USD 1.175million) in this year’s Ind T20 League auction, despite a base price of AU$90,000 (USD60,000).

After T20 Blast, Johnson will turn out for LA Knight Riders in the Major T20 league, before returning to the Oval for his Hundred stint. Besides numerous appearances in the domestic arena, Johnson has six international caps.