Zimbabwe bowler Blessing 'ticks a lot of boxes' for Northants

But the County head coach says there is no news as yet on the prospects of signing the 21-year-old.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Muzarabani would be making himself unavailable for international cricket to further his career in England.

He has played one Test, 18 ODIs and six T20Is for Zimbabwe, the latest of which was against Pakistan in July.

And having previously featured for Northants' second team, Muzarabani is certainly on Ripley's radar.

"We've spoken to Blessing," Ripley said. "We've been working with that over the past two or three weeks.

"It's had a few ups and downs so we're not quite ready to say anything about that yet.

"He's a player we showed some interest in and as a young player, who has got some white-ball pedigree.

"One of the things we're looking to try to do during the recruitment stage is not lose sight of the white-ball element of anyone we might bring in so Blessing ticks a lot of those boxes."