New boy Louis Kimber keen to make his mark in all formats for Northants

The 29-year-old signed from Leicestershire over the winter, having spent six seasons at Grace Road.

The player himself admits he probably enjoyed more success in white ball cricket for the Foxes, but he did still make 42 first-class appearances and was part of the squad that won the County Championship Division Two title last summer.

And he wants to be fully involved at Northants.

"I love playing all formats, white ball and red ball," said Kimber, who made his first-class debut for Northants in the weekend draw with Lancashire, scoring an important 33 in the first innings.

"I have probably had more success in the white ball stuff, but I really enjoy playing red ball cricket as well, and it is still an area where I really want to develop, get better at, and hopefully win games of cricket for Northants.

"I feel in a good place batting wise, and bowling wise I have been improving.

"I worked really hard on that while playing in Australia and over the past couple of seasons, and it is starting to develop nicely."

Which brings us on to the little matter of Kimber's record-breaking innings against Sussex back in June 2024, when he clubbed a remarkable 243 from just 127 balls.

It was fastest Championship double-century (100 balls) and he also achieved the highest number of runs in a single over (43) and smacked 21 sixes - the most hit in a Championship innings.

So the talent and game is in there... it's now about hitting those kind of heights on a regular basis.

"I am pretty proud of that, and it is a cool achievement, but I just want to become a bit more consistent," said the Scunthorpe-born player.

"I know I am capable of producing those types of performances, but it is about improving and tweaking one or two things, and hopefully I will be able to play more of those kind of match-winning knocks, although perhaps not to that extent!"

Northants head coach Darren Lehmann has also been impressed by what he has seen from Kimber to date.

“I am really happy with Louis, he has slotted in really well and is a big man who hits a big ball," said the Australian.

“We just want to refine him a little bit, tighten him up, but we don’t want to lose that natural instinct in him either.

“We want him to go out and play with a bit of freedom, so we are working on a few things but nothing to change too much.

“When you have a clean ball striker like that you should use it, and we are encouraging him to use it when he can.”

Kimber will be hoping to keep his place in the Northants team when they take on Kent at Canterbury in the Championship on Friday (start 11am).