KENT have plumped for Adelaide-born all-rounder Greg Blewett as the man to replace Andrew Symonds for the start of the county season.

Blewett, 31, is playing a double-wicket competition in St Lucia until the weekend but arrives in England on Monday in good time for the St George’s Day championship opener with Leicestershire in Canterbury.

Already a veteran of 200 first-class games - he has also played 46 Tests and 32 one-day internationals - Blewett averages 46.54 as an opening batsman in first-class cricket and has taken 128 wickets with his brisk medium-pace.

Blewett enjoyed previous spells in England with Yorkshire in 1999, where he stood in for Darren Lehmann, and then at Nottinghamshire in 2001, where he replaced another Australian, Paul Reiffel.

Blewett struggled for fitness and form in Headingley, playing just 12 county games he scored 655 runs at an average of 31.

Nicknamed ‘Blewy’, he showed his true colours in an excellent Division 2 campaign at Trent Bridge, amassing 1,292 runs at 47.85, including five hundreds and as many half-centuries.

Renown for his forceful pulling and hooking, the right-hander from South Australia became one of only three Aussies to score centuries in his first two Tests in 1994 when he put England to the sword.

He also scored 214 for his part in one of Australia’s highest Test partnership (385 against South Africa, Johannesburg, 1997) with Kent’s overseas locum from 2002, Steve Waugh.

After six years as a Test regular under the captaincy of Waugh, Blewett finally lost his place in the Australian side three years ago following a poor run of form.