Rising Aussie star Josh Philippe has opted out of deal in the Indian Premier League

Rising Australian star Josh Philippe has pulled out of his Indian Premier League deal citing personal reasons.

Philippe, the Big Bash player of the tournament, made his debut for the Australian T20 side in the recent series against New Zealand, playing all five games.

He was on a modest, $70,000 contract with the Royal Challengers Bangalore who released a statement confirming that the 23-year-old had made himself unavailable for the tournament, which begins next month.

All Australian players are expected to leave on April 1.

“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 calibre for this IPL season, but at the same time we fully understand, respect and support his decision of excluding himself from the tournament.”

Philippe played five games and scored 78 runs for the Virat Kohli-led franchise in last year’s tournament on the first year of a two-year deal.

He returned to Australia from New Zealand earlier this week with his teammates after the T20 series, and was left out of the Western Australian team for Thursday’s one-day clash with Queensland.

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#Classof2021pic.twitter.com/DaasJ58ngk

“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.

Larsen said New Zealand coach Gary Stead was in talks with IPL clubs about when players would be required to arrive in India.

“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.”

Source: Read Full Article