Fast-bowling all-rounder Grant Stewart signed his first professional contract for Kent in 2017 after his Second XI form promised he could alleviate the county’s shortage of pace bowlers.

Australian-born Stewart is not classed as an overseas player as he has an EU passport through his Italian mother.

A qualified civil engineer who grew up in New South Wales, he made his first-class debut as a bowling allrounder in the final game of the 2017 Championship season.

Better was to come in Kent’s promotion season in 2018, led by an extraordinary display in a floodlit rout of Middlesex at Canterbury.

Only playing thanks to the absence of Matt Henry & Darren Stevens, he had taken four wickets in as many games in his first-class career when he took the new pink ball, but two hours later, he had his maiden five-wicket haul as he swung the Dukes ball under the lights.

He then followed up his career-best 6 for 22 with a lusty 103, his maiden first-class hundred arriving in just 73 balls.

Stewart was a part of the Kent Spitfires side that won the Vitality Blast in 2021, but personally for the all-rounder, his T20 performances earned him a call-up for Italy ahead of their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier held in Spain that October.

Playing international tournament cricket for the first time, Stewart recorded a new T20 best score in his third match for Italy, with 51 runs coming from 31 deliveries against an attack featuring former Kent seamer, Copenhagen-born Amjad Khan.

In July 2022, Stewart passed 1,000 first-class runs for Kent away at Lancashire, before signing a contract extension with the Club later that week.

With six required to beat Yorkshire Vikings during the group stage of the 2022 Royal London Cup, Stewart cause an almighty roar from the home support with a devastating maximum pulled into the crowd to give Kent victory.

That moment was seen by many to be the catalyst of the Spitfires’ run to the final at Trent Bridge, where Stewart took three wickets to help Kent lift the trophy for the first time since 1974.

In November of 2022, he smashed 76 from 33 deliveries against Germany opening the batting for his adopted country to record a new IT20 Best Score, & earning the Player of the Tournament award from Italy’s IT20 Tri-Series with Germany & Spain.

2023’s Vitality Blast competition saw Stewart break the record for T20 wickets in a single season. His 24 wickets at an average of 17.70 surpassed the 23 taken by Yasir Arafat in 2008. His efforts across all formats earned him the Men’s Bowler of the Year title at the 2023 Spitfire Kent Cricket Awards.