Wellington Firebirds batsman Finn Allen's dream T20 summer hasn't gone unnoticed, the 21-year-old sensation rewarded with a late-call up to the lucrative Indian Premier League.

Allen will replace Australian wicketkeeper Josh Philippe at the Royal Challengers Bangalore, joining the likes of Virat Kholi, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers.

Allen was previously unsold in the IPL auction two weeks ago but is a late call-up and will pocket 20 lakh ($38,000 NZD) after Philippe made himself unavailable for personal reasons.

Allen was the standout of this summer's Dream11 Super Smash season, scoring 512 runs at a strike-rate of 194, including a tournament-high 24 sixes. 

The 2021 IPL competition will return to India for the first time in two years and gets underway with a mouth-watering clash between defending champions the Mumbai Indians and Allen's Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 9. 

Official Statement from Royal Challengers Bangalore:

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.

We had to select the next best option from the list of players registered for the IPL Auction, at the same base price as Josh (20 Lakh). We spent a great amount of time working through that potential list and have selected Finn Allen as a top-order batting replacement.

Finn is an exciting talent and was selected for New Zealand as cover for Martin Guptill in the recent series against Australia. He has been exceptional during the Super Smash T20 Tournament, scoring 512 runs, with the highest score of 92*, at an average of 57 and a Strike Rate of 194.

We look forward to having Finn Allen at RCB this season.

Article added: Thursday 11 March 2021