IPL 2021: RCB rope in New Zealand's Finn Allen with Josh Philippe set to miss upcoming edition

New Delhi: Young Australian wicket-keeper batsman Josh Philippe will miss the IPL beginning on 9 April and will be replaced by New Zealand’s Finn Allen in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad. “Royal Challengers Bangalore have signed up New Zealand wicketkeeper batsman Finn Allen as replacement for Josh Philippe who will be unavailable for the entire season,” an IPL release said.

Finn Allen replaces Josh Philippe for #IPL2021.

We regret to inform that Josh Philippe has made himself unavailable for IPL 2021 due to personal reasons. As a result, we have picked an exciting top order batsman in Finn Allen.#PlayBold #Classof2021 pic.twitter.com/DaasJ58ngk

— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 10, 2021

The 23-year-old Philippe had made his IPL debut in the UAE last year, playing five games and scoring 78 runs for RCB. His replacement Finn has played 12 First-class games and scored three half centuries. The 21-year-old had smashed 512 runs in 11 innings to emerge as the top run-scorer in the Super Smash League this year. “Finn had a base price of Rs 20 lakh equivalent to that of Josh Philippe. It will be Finn’s debut VIVO IPL season this year when he plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore,” the release added.