England batter Dan Lawrence has been signed by Melbourne Stars as an overseas replacement player and is set to play the remainder of the BBL with Stars losing Pakistan duo Usama Mir and Haris Rauf to international duty.

Lawrence has previously played four games in the BBL for Brisbane Heat in 2020 and had nominated for the draft back in September but was not selected.

Stars have climbed to fourth on the table after back-to-back wins but Mir and Rauf will miss the remainder of the tournament after being selected for Pakistan’s limited-overs tour of New Zealand in January.

The first match of the tour is not until January 12 in Auckland but the PCB only allowed No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for Rauf, Mir and Sydney Thunder signing Zaman Khan to play in the BBL until December 28 due to the “the workload of players and the future tours programme of the national men’s team.”

That had come after a tense stand-off between Rauf and the PCB after he decided not to play in the Australia Test series and was publicly criticised by PCB officials. It later emerged that the PCB board had sent Rauf a show cause notice to explain his decision to pull out of selection for the Tests.

Lawrence’s availability for the rest of the tournament is a rare win for Stars who have had a difficult run with their overseas signings. They bravely took Harry Brook with the second pick in the BBL overseas draft only for Brook to unsurprisingly withdraw from the tournament due to his international workload having been selected for England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean in December and the Test tour of India in January.

They signed England left-arm spinner Liam Dawson for a three-game stint before Christmas but he was unavailable thereafter. They were able to sign Imad Wasim for the post-Christmas period.

Lawrence will add some depth to Stars’ top-order which has yet to fire fully despite winning their last two matches. He also knows Stars skipper Glenn Maxwell having played a handful of games with him at London Spirit last year where the pair batted together on a couple of occasions.

Lawrence is also familiar with Stars’ home ground the MCG having made a century there for England Lions against Australia A in an unofficial pink-ball Test in 2020.