The Rajasthan Royals have signed New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Glenn Phillips as a replacement for Jos Buttler for the second half of IPL 2021. The development comes with Buttler opting out of the remainder of the season due to the impending birth of his second child.
Phillips, who is currently with the Barbados Royals in the CPL, which begins next week in the West Indies, is scheduled to join the Royals squad in the UAE on September 19. Apart from having played 25 T20Is for his country and having participated in the CPL, he has also had stints in England's Vitality Blast as well as the Hundred.
Last November, Phillips hammered a 46-ball century against West Indies in Mount Maunganui, breaking Colin Munro's record for the fastest ton by a New Zealand batter in T20Is. Aside from that, he has also cracked three other centuries in T20 cricket - two for Auckland and one for the Jamaica Tallawahs.
Phillips' 506 T20I runs have come at a strike rate of 149.70, with the majority of his innings having come outside the top three.
With Buttler's absence, the Royals will be without all three of their England stars, with Jofra Archer's elbow fracture ruling him out of all cricket for the rest of the year, and Ben Stokes taking a break from the game for mental-health reasons. The Royals will certainly miss Buttler, who had scored 254 runs at a strike rate of 153.01, including 124 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, before the IPL season came to a halt midway through.
The Royals, who are placed fifth in the points table, resume their IPL 2021 campaign against the Punjab Kings on September 21.