RCB has picked Finn Allen as a replacement for Josh Philippe where the latter pulled out from the upcoming season of the cash-rich league due to personal reasons.
Philippe made his debut in IPL 2020 where he played five games and scored 78 runs for the franchise.
His replacement Finn performed exceptionally well in the recently concluded smash tournament where he scored 512 runs to help Wellington Firebirds to lift the title.
He might miss his International debut for New Zealand where Kiwis will be playing the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh on March 28th, 2021.
“Finn has been talked about a lot and why wouldn’t he because he’s had a fantastic season with Wellington,” New Zealand selector Gavin Larden told reporters on Thursday.
However, he added that head coach Gary Stead is in talks with the IPL franchise as when the players were supposed to arrive in India to play the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league.
“We’ve got a number of guys involved in the IPL and there is a cutover period. We’re just working through that now,” he said.
“Gary [Stead] is talking with franchise coaches around expectations and what the hopes are and we’ll make the [selection] decision in the very near future.”
The statement on the unavailability was confirmed by RCB who confirmed the unavailability of the Australian wicketkeeper-batsman in IPL 2021.
“Philippe has made himself unavailable for the upcoming season due to personal reasons,” RCB said in a statement.
“The RCB management is disappointed to lose a player of Josh’s caliber for this IPL season, but at the same time, we fully understand, respect, and support his decision of excluding himself from the tournament.
