Royal Challengers Bengaluru have picked up New Zealand wicket-keeper Tim Seifert as a replacement for England's Jacob Bethell for the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025). Bethell, who has been picked in England's ODI and T20I squads for the series against West Indies, will leave following RCB’s league-stage game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 23, 2025. Seifert, playing for Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), will be available for RCB from May 24, 2025.

Seifert's selection doesn't come as a surprise, given his exploits in the shortest format of the game. Having scored 226 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 145.80 in PSL this season, he will only go on to bolster RCB's batting at the top of the order. The other thing that goes in favour of the New Zealand batter is his ability to bat at the top of the order, while also being able to play with the same tempo lower down the order.

The 30-year-old can be used as a floater in the batting order as and when the situation arises, giving a great amount of flexibility to the RCB line-up. So, although his ideal batting position remains at the top of the order or No.3, he can also use the long handle to good effect lower down the order.

Bethell's selection came at the back of his ability to play spin, and Seifert is no different. So, it is almost a like-for-like replacement for RCB. His strike rate against spin is close to 136 in 47 innings, while against pace, it goes up to 144. In the series against Pakistan earlier in the year, he scored 249 runs in 5 matches at a strike rate of close to 208.