Australian wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis has said that he won’t be available for the entire duration of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, after being picked by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for Rs 8.6 crore at the auction on Tuesday.
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Inglis said that he was getting married in early April, which would not allow him to feature for the entirety of the league, which is reportedly set to start on March 26.
“Well, I sort of watched a lot of it [IPL auction] and I was pushed back in the pecking order. I don’t have full availability this year. I’m getting married in early April. So, I didn’t really expect to go, to be honest. So I sort of saw my name go by unsold… the first one I was like, ‘alright stuff this, I’m going to bed’, and I need to switch on for tomorrow [Ashes] and then woke up to the news. I didn’t know until I’d seen a few messages this morning,” he told ABC Sport.
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Inglis was released by Punjab Kings ahead of the auction, but when his name was called out on Tuesday, it sparked a bidding war between the 2025 finalists and LSG, with the latter eventually outbidding the former to secure the player.
South African legend AB de Villiers had referred to the Inglis deal as the ‘craziest signing’ he had ever seen, especially for a player who was available only for a limited number of matches.
“Josh Inglis, this is the craziest signing I have ever seen in my life. He is only going to be available for four matches. LSG sign him for 8.6 crores. I don’t know, is he really worth that much? Then you look at guys who were unsold like Jonny Bairstow, Devon Conway, all of them would be available for the entire season and possibly a better signing for LSG,” he said on his YouTube channel.
Reports had emerged before the auction that Inglis had informed the BCCI, before that auction, that he could play only four matches of the upcoming season and had given himself a base price of Rs 2 crore ahead of the auction.