Rising star Josh Philippe pulls out of Indian Premier League deal

Fresh off making his international debut, Josh Philippe has decided not to take up the second year of his Indian Premier League deal.

Josh Philippe made his T20 debut for Australia against New Zealand last month. Picture: Joe Allison/Getty Images

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 across two years with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, which 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 is currently serving 14 days of home isolation mandated by the Western Australian government.

Philippe hadn’t been home to WA since August, having gone from Australia‘s England tour to the IPL in Dubai, then straight into the BBL hub with the Sydney Sixers after two weeks of hotel quarantine in Sydney, and then immediately to New Zealand following the BBL final.

The eight other Western Aussies who were part of the Australia side in NZ - Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitch Marsh, Jhye Richardson, D‘Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner and Andrew Tye - are also at home in isolation.

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

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 10, 2021

Originally published as Rising star Josh Philippe pulls out of Indian Premier League deal