Punjab Kings have signed young Australian pacer Nathan Ellis for the remaining season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Ellis was recently selected by Australia as a reserve player for the T20 World Cup.
Ellis has been signed because Australia’s Zai Richardson and Rilee Meredith have decided to withdraw from the league.
Alice has signed up as an alternative – Punjab CEO
“We were not aware of the fitness status of Jhye and Riley until yesterday,” Punjab Kings team’s CEO Satish Menon said, confirming the signing to Cricbuzz. “We have signed Ellis as a replacement player. We will announce the second replacement in a day or two,” the franchise CEO said.
Alice did not sell at an auction held in January
Ellis also made his name in the 2021 season auction, but he did not sell despite a base price of Rs 20 lakh. Three franchises were behind him till the deal with Punjab was finalized.
Alice, who made her T20 debut earlier this month, has played only two international matches so far but is now ready to play in the biggest T20 league.
Ellis became the first bowler to score a hat-trick in T20 debut
Ellis scored a hat-trick against Bangladesh in his first T20 match. In the third match of the series, he took the wickets of Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Rahman, and Mehdi Hasan in the last three balls of his fourth over respectively.
He became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the t20 international debut match. He became the third Australian bowler to take a hat-trick in T20Is after Brett Lee (2007) and Ashton Edgar (2020).
Richardson got 14 rupees while Meredith got Rs 8 crore
Richardson, 24, was bought by Punjab for a price of Rs 14 crore. Richardson, with a base price of Rs 1.5 crore, was the third most expensive player of the 2021 season. Richardson, who sold for such an expensive price, had taken only three wickets in three matches and his economy was above 10.
Meredith had received a price of Rs 8 crore and took four wickets in five matches from an economy of 9.94.