IPL 2021 Transfer Window: Royal Challengers Bangalore Ropes In MI Reserve Player As Kane Richardson’s Replacement
IPL 2021: This comes after Kane Richardson, along with countrymate Adam Zampa, both Australians, decided to pull out of the ongoing IPL 14 citing personal reasons .
IPL 2021: New Zealand pacer Scott Kuggeleijn, who was part of the Mumbai Indians reserves – has become the first player to be transferred in the IPL 2021 mid-season transfer window.
Kuggeleijn has been named as the replacement player for Kane Richardson by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), for the remainder of the tournament.
This comes after the duo of Australian – Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa decided to pull out of the ongoing IPL 14 citing personal reasons and concerns with the ongoing severe second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and will fly home shortly.
The duo, as things stand, are still stuck in Mumbai, due to the travel ban imposed by Australia, but RCB have already replaced Richardson with Kuggeleijn.
According to the reports of ESPNCricinfo, RCB have signed Kuggeleijn as Richardson’s replacement as the 29-year-old was already in India, within the secure bio-bubble, operating as a net bowler for Mumbai Indians.
Kuggeleijn is an experienced player and has already previously been a part of the Indian Premier League. In IPL 2019, he was roped in by Chennai Super Kings as a replacement for Lungi Ngidi, and the right-armer featured in two games for the Men in Yellow, picking 2 wickets at an economy of 8.87.
Kuggeleijn has played 2 ODIs and 16 T20Is for New Zealand having made his debut for the Blackcaps in 2017. He has 5 ODI wickets and 13 T20I wickets to his name. Apart from this, Kuggeleijn has played 83 FC matches, 83 List-A matches, and 120 T20 matches, picking 266, 126, and 118 wickets respectively.
Apart from Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa, another Australian Andre Tye, who was part of Rajasthan Royals (RR), and RR’s England recruit Liam Livingstone, has also pulled out of the IPL 2021 tournament and Livingstone has already flown back to the UK.
Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals’ off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the first Indian player to pull out of the IPL 2021, saying that he is taking a break from the tournament to be with his family and support them in the fight against COVID-19. He has kept the door open for a return if things get better.
