Kent overseas signing Doug Bollinger may miss the start of the 2014 county season after being called up to the Australian T20 World Cup squad.

32-year-old Bollinger has been brought into his national squad to replace Mitchell Johnson, who has been ruled out of the tournament in Bangladesh with an infection in his toe.

The news will come as something of a blow to Kent, who had cited Bollinger’s availability for the entire campaign as one of the main reasons that they were so keen on capturing his signature.

The World T20 tournament in Bangladesh starts today, with a number of qualifying matches taking place until Friday 21 March, and is scheduled to run for exactly three weeks; the final set to take place in Mirpur on Sunday 6 April 2014. Kent’s pre-season game against Loughborough MCCU is scheduled to start on the day afterwards, on April 7, so it is therefore certain that Bollinger would be unavailable for this should Australia reach the concluding stages of the tournament.

Bollinger had been expected to make his Kent debut in their opening LV= Division Two County Championship game away at Worcestershire starting Sunday 13 April 2014, however he may now miss out on doing so, with Kent likely to want to be sure he is fit and rested prior to starting the campaign.

If he does miss out on the game at Worcestershire, he could potentially be looking at making his debut for the Kent in their first two Championship matches at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, against either Leicestershire, starting Sunday 20 April, or Surrey, starting Sunday 27 April.

Australia’s first match of the World T20 sees them take on Pakistan on Sunday 23 March, followed by further group games against West Indies, India and an as-of-yet-unconfirmed qualifier.

Left-arm seamer Bollinger has played two T20 internationals for Australia, taking two wickets at an average of 29.50. He has also featured in 12 Test matches and 39 ODI’s for his country. Despite not having played for Australia since October 2011, his domestic form in the longest form of the game for New South Wales saw him on the fringes of the Test squad for the recent Ashes series Down Under.