New Zealand batter has impressed since his international debut a year ago

Young, the 29-year-old top-order batter, will be available for most of the LV= Insurance County Championship and Royal London Cup, subject to international commitments.

“I see it as a fantastic opportunity for me to continue to learn about the conditions in the UK but also to add as much as I can to the Northamptonshire environment,” Young said. “There certainly seems to be some great skill and talent within the team. I hope to help bring as much success as possible to the club this summer.”

Young scored two centuries in four appearances for Durham during the 2021 Championship season. In first-class matches, he has 12 hundreds and an average of 42.26. Young more than 10,000 runs to his name across all formats.

John Sadler, Northamptonshire’s head coach, said signing a quality batter was the club’s top recruitment priority. Northants finished eighth in their group in the Royal London Cup and bottom of the Blast’s North Group in 2021. They will play in Division One of the Championship next year, having earned promotion in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic sparked changes to the structure of the past two domestic seasons.

“We feel like he’s a brilliant option for us, he wants to come over and enhance his own game as well as add value to our side, so he’s just a perfect fit,” Sadler said. “He’s world class. He’s an international player who played beautifully last week in the Test matches, but we’ve had our eyes on him for a good couple of months really since the end of the season.”

Young will join the Northamptonshire squad ahead of the English summer.