XtraTime Web Desk: Young Australian hard hitting batsman Joshua Philippe will be the player to watch out for in the upcoming 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) which gets underway from September 19 in UAE. 23 year old Philippe rose to prominence with his performance in the 2019/20 Big Bash League (BBL) season. Philippe played a blinder (52 off 29 balls) in the final against Melbourne Renegades to help Sydney Sixer’s lift their second BBL title. His knock included four boundaries and 3 massive sixes. The talented cricketer from Western Australia was the third-highest run-scorer in the 2019/20 BBL, amassing 487 runs at a strike rate of 130, opening the batting for his team. His breakthrough season in the league made the cricketing world take notice of his abilities. He is a wonderful timer of the ball with the full 360-degree range of shots, his power in display during the 2019-2020 BBL when he launched a six onto the roof of the pavilion at the SCG.
Philippe, who idolizes Australian star batsman Steve Smith have had similar ups and downs in his short career so far. But with sheer mental toughness and hard-work he fought back through the tough phase.
The fiery wicket-keeper batsman can double up as a wicket-keeping option as well as an overseas opener for RCB in the 2020 IPL season. With power hitters like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the ranks, young Joshua can add more firepower to the batting line up. Picked for a base price of 20 lakhs, the franchise will believe they have made a smart buy from the auction held last year.
It will be interesting to see if RCB include the 22-year-old Philippe over more established overseas names. Philippe can be another option for the Bangalore franchise as far as wicket-keeping batsman is concerned along with the likes of Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers and Shahbaz Ahmed. The South African was seen trying his wicket-keeping skills after a long time at the nets in Dubai.Following his impressive start to his career, Philippe was drafted in the Australia squad for the tour to England where Aaron Finch’s men will play three T20Is and ODI’s respectively. With an array of strokes and ability to clear the boundary at ease, Josh Philippe can turn out to be the X factor for RCB this season.