NatWest T20 Blast: Birmingham sign New Zealand star Luke Ronchi

Birmingham Bears have signed New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Luke Ronchi for the entirety of their NatWest T20 Blast campaign.

The 34-year-old will link up with the Bears, the name of Warwickshire's Twenty20 team, ahead of their first game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on May 20.

Ronchi featured for Somerset in last year's competition and has experience of the Indian Premier League and Australia's Big Bash League, while he plays domestic cricket for the same team as Warwickshire's long-standing overseas player Jeetan Patel.

"Birmingham Bears have been one of the top teams in T20 over the last two years and I'm very excited to join such a great club that boasts several internationals," said Ronchi, who played all five games in the Black Caps' run to the semi-finals of the recently-concluded World Twenty20.

Ronchi has made exactly 100 international appearances for the Black Caps, with one Test match - against England at Headingley last year - 70 one-dayers and 29 T20Is.

Warwickshire's director of cricket, Dougie Brown, said: "Luke has played in the biggest limited-overs competitions in the world and he is widely recognised as one of the finest wicketkeeper-batsmen in the game.

"His power and ability to consistently hit boundaries will bolster our middle-order batting line-up and I am sure that his performances will also be great entertainment for our fans at Edgbaston."