Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have bought the services of the Kiwi wicket-keeper batsman Finn Allen as a replacement for Josh Philippe who will be missing the 14th edition of the league be unavailable for the entire season. Philippe, who made his debut in 2020, played five matches and amassed 78 runs for RCB. His replacement Finn has featured in 12 first-class matches for New Zealand and scored three half-centuries.

In an official announcement from IPL regarding the same, they said, “Royal Challengers Bangalore have signed up New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Finn Allen as a replacement for Josh Philippe who will be unavailable for the entire season.”

ALSO READ: Ravi Shastri Feels There Are Too Many 36s In The Indian Cricket

Finn had a base price of ₹20 Lakhs equivalent to that of Josh Philippe. The IPL Governing Council on Sunday announced the schedule for the 14th edition of the tournament to be held in India across six venues from April 9.

Defending champions Mumbai Indians will be locking horns with RCB in Chennai in the tournament opener. The final of the tournament will be played on May 30 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Playoffs will also be played at the same venue. Each team is set to play at four venues during the league stage.

Out of the 56 league games, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru will host 10 matches each while Ahmedabad and Delhi will host 8 matches each.

ALSO READ: Rishabh Pant Reaches His Career-best Position In The ICC Test Rankings

One of the highlights of this edition of the IPL will be the fact that all games will be played at neutral venues. No team will play at their home venue. All teams will play at four out of six venues during the league stage.