Rickelton, who made his Test debut against Bangladesh in March, comes in to strengthen the squad in red-ball cricket after the departure of Will Young, on international duty with New Zealand, and Matt Kelly, who has returned home to Australia.

"It's really exciting and a great opportunity to be joining Northamptonshire." Rickelton said.

"I have always wanted to play county cricket and to be part of such a well-rounded, strong group is brilliant and I look forward to hopefully contributing to the side's success in the County Championship."

Rickelton, 25, has scored 2973 runs at 50.38 in first-class cricket, and knows Northants captain, Ricardo Vasconcelos, from their time growing up in South Africa.

He will arrive in the UK this week, ahead of Northamptonshire's Championship fixture against Warwickshire starting on Sunday. He is also due to feature against Kent next month.

"I'm delighted to have Ryan join us for a couple of games, we've known each other since we were little so I'm looking forward to hopefully getting to bat together for Northamptonshire," Vasconcelos said.

"He's a really positive batsman, he plays his shots and has scored a lot of runs in the last couple of years. He got off the mark in test cricket with a reverse sweep I think, so that tells you a bit about him."