Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson have left Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to fly back to Australia on Monday. The duo followed Andrew Tye’s example, who had returned home from the ongoing IPL 2021.
Other players including Liam Livingstone also left the cash-rich league mid-way, whereas Ravichandran Ashwin took an indefinite break from the T20 leg.
India is witnessing the world’s highest number of cases of the new novel strain. In the midst of such a scare, Australia has banned flights from India and other red zone countries.
Meanwhile, as per a Cricbuzz report, RCB have roped in New Zealand pacer Scott Kuggeleijn as Richardson’s replacement. Kuggeleijn was already a part of the T20 tournament as a member of the Mumbai Indians (MI) and recently transferred to RCB. The regulations allow aside to hire a player in the middle of the T20 leg from its competitors if the cricketer has played less than two matches at the beginning of the IPL loan period.
As per the IPL rules, “the loan window will start at 9 am IST on the day following the 20th league match scheduled for the season and will end at noon IST on the day following the 56th league match scheduled for the season.”
Kuggeleijn had also played IPL in 2019 when he was a part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and appeared in a couple of games as a replacement for Lungi Ngidi.
The 29-year-old has played 2 ODIs and 16 T20Is for his national side while picking up 5 and 13 scalps, respectively.
RCB will clash with Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their next match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday (April 30).
