The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be missing their crucial cog, Pat Cummins in the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. The franchise has signed New Zealand’s veteran pacer Tim Southee for the remaining games of the season. Interestingly, Southee also wasn’t named in any of the squads for the BlackCaps tour of Bangladesh (for T20Is) and Pakistan (for ODIs and T20Is).

All the IPL-bound players from New Zealand will be joining their respective franchises for the second leg of the IPL, which is scheduled to be commencing on September 19. Southee had gone unsold in the auction as he played his last IPL game in 2019 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Accoridng to the latest reports of Cricbuzz, KKR has roped in Tim Southee for KKR. However, the franchise has won just a couple of games out of seven matches and is currently languishing at seventh place in the points table.

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Tim Southee has immense experience of playing in the IPL and particularly T20 cricket. He has led New Zealand in the absence of Kane Williamson before as well. KKR is his fourth IPL franchise for as he earlier played for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rajasthan Royals (RR), and RCB before. He made his debut in the IPL back in 2011 and has played a total of 40 matches since then.

Tim Southee had taken 28 wickets so far but had a forgettable 2019 season with RCB as he conceded runs at an economy of 13 in three matches he played. Having said that, he has been performing really well for the Kiwis all these years and KKR might have signed Southee citing his experience in the format.

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While playing for New Zealand, Tim Southee has featured in 82 games in which he has scalped 99 wickets and has also picked a five-wicket haul. Southee will be hoping for a better IPL stint this time around. Meanwhile, KKR will resume their campaign of the season against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on September 20 in Abu Dhabi.