SOHAIL Tanvir is as good a Twenty20 bowler as Sri Lanka superstar Lasith Malinga.

That is the verdict of Hampshire Royals captain Dimi Mascarenhas as his side prepare for the start of their Friends Life t20 defence against Surrey at the Ageas Bowl tomorrow night (7.10pm start).

Tanvir will make his t20 debut for Hampshire, the format in which he is best known following his heroics at the inaugural Indian Premier League, as part of the same Rajasthan Royals squad as Mascarenhas, in 2008.

“Sohail’s a seriously good bowler up front and at the death and,” said Mascarenhas. “He’s got a couple of variations, but at the end of the day he just nails his yorkers.

“He’s as good a ‘death’ bowler as there is. I’d put him up there with Malinga. He might not be playing for Pakistan at the moment but he’s right up there. Hopefully he’ll win us some games and do what he did for Rajasthan five years ago.”

Tanvir will fulfil a role that has been Hampshire’s least strong point in recent seasons. Famously, Chris Wood took three wickets in the final over of last season’s tournament as Hampshire beat Yorkshire at Cardiff.

But Tanvir, with his unorthodox action and world-class skills, gives Hampshire’s attack more experience and an extra dimension.

“Last year we probably lacked a bit of death bowling, but the addition of Sohail will hopefully put that to bed,” added Mascarenhas.

*Tanvir is Hampshire’s only t20 overseas player this year following the decision not to re-sign Glenn Maxwell, who will be returning to West End with Surrey.

“If Maxi came back [to play for us] that would have mean a homegrown player missing out so, as a club, we thought it was best to just go with one and back our guys as they’ve done a tremendous job over the years,” added Mascaranhas. “Maxi helped us a huge amount last year, he won us two games by himself so we know what he can do – hopefully we can exploit some of his weaknesses.”

With two T20 titles in the last three years, either side of a Super Over semi-final exit in 2011, Hampshire are the team to beat in this year’s competition. But Maxwell is only one reason why Surrey will provide tough competition. “I think we’re very strong, but we’re in the comp’s toughest group in the comp and are going to have to play some very good cricket to get through,” added Mascarenhas. “Surrey are a seriously strong unit, you look at the names on paper; Ponting, Solanki, Maxwell, Azhar Mahmood, Davies, Roy, Dernbach, Tremlett...the list just goes on.”* Mascarenhas was the only fitness doubt as Hampshire prepared to name their squad later today, having suffered a back spasm during the Yorkshire Bank 40 defeat at Durham.

The 35 year-old had an injection yesterday afternoon and added: “Fingers crossed it’ll settle down and I’ll be good to go. I’ve worked really hard over the last year trying to get myself right. “My Achilles feels good but, unfortunately, if it’s not that it’s something else.”