Ryan Higgins re-joins Middlesex for Championship finale ahead of permanent return

It was announced last month that the allrounder, who began his county career at Middlesex, would be returning from Gloucestershire ahead of the 2023 season

Ryan Higgins will join Middlesex on loan for the remainder of the season ahead of re-joining the county on a permanent basis from next season.

It was announced last month that the allrounder, who began his county career at Middlesex, would be returning from Gloucestershire ahead of the 2023 season.

But it has now been agreed for Higgins, who developed into one of the leading players on the domestic circuit after leaving Middlesex at the end of 2017, to bring forward the start of his second stint at Lord's – a four-year contract from 2023 – beginning with the LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Glamorgan, which begins on September 12.

"We are thrilled to have reached agreement for Higgo to join us immediately for the remainder of the season," said Alan Coleman, Middlesex's head of men's performance.

"Our thanks go to all at Gloucestershire for making this happen and we look forward to welcoming Ryan back into the group this week.

"Ryan brings quality, experience, and a game-winning mentality with him, and we are excited to have him around for this crucial part of the season."

^{This is Ryan Higgins' second stint at Middlesex (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)}

Higgins' first stint at Middlesex – between coming through the club's age-group system via Berkshire and opting to leave for Bristol – featured just 57 sporadic appearances across four years, and in the time since his exit has regularly been referenced as symptomatic of the county's struggles after winning the County Championship in 2016. Many members might argue that a second-coming ought never to have been necessary.

"From a cricket point of view, I really wanted to believe that I was going to be backed as a four-day cricketer there, but I don't think I ever was," Higgins told The Cricketer in 2019. "I remember scoring that many runs in the second team and not getting a chance. That may have changed but it would have taken another three or four years.

"It was an easy decision because I'd watched so many guys do it and just stay but not get anywhere. And then you watch someone like Adam Rossington (who left for Northamptonshire, where he eventually became captain) take the plunge and their careers flourish straight away."

In the intervening period, he has made almost 4,000 runs and taken more than 260 wickets for Gloucestershire in all formats, culminating in the remarkable summer of 2019, where he spearheaded the Bristol county's successful promotion push in the County Championship, with 958 runs and 50 wickets.

In a Gloucestershire squad struggling this season in Division One, only two players have scored more runs and just one has taken more wickets. He recently represented Welsh Fire in The Hundred.

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