"Josh Inglis: From Leeds to IPL Star."

"Josh Inglis: From Leeds to IPL Star."

                    Wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis, who was born in Leeds before relocating to Australia as a 14-year-old, moved into the national reckoning after finding his feet for both Western Australia and Perth Scorchers.

A versatile and hard-hitting batter, he enjoyed a breakthrough Sheffield Shield season in 2020-21 with 585 runs including his first three first-class hundreds having previously churned out runs at grade level without quite making the step up.

That followed consecutive 400-plus run seasons for Scorchers in the BBL - where his adaptability at moving from the top order to the middle was noted by selectors - and having continued to flay runs in county cricket for Leicestershire he was named in Australia's 2021 T20 World Cup despite not being part of any of the previous series.

He would need to wait for the following year to make his international debut in both white-ball formats when he featured against Sri Lanka, and a number of his early matches came as a batter, but his big moment would come in late 2023 when he became Australia's first-choice ODI gloveman one match into the World Cup when the selectors dropped Alex Carey.

After the World Cup, in a much-forgotten T20 series against India, Inglis flayed a remarkable 110 off 50 balls in Visakhapatnam albeit the innings came in a defeat. With the selectors sticking with Matthew Wade for the 2024 T20 World Cup, Inglis continued to have to bide his time but the stage was then set for him to be the No. 1 across both limited-overs sides while remaining Carey's test understudy.

Josh Inglis - IPL factfile:

Josh Inglis got his first IPL deal ahead of the 2025 season, with Punjab Kings (PBKS) securing him for INR 2.6 crore.

Inglis has significant T20 experience, having played in leagues like the BBL, the Hundred, and Major League Cricket. He's also been a regular in the Australian T20I set-up since 2022.

One of his two T20I centuries came in India in 2023 against a group of bowlers with a lot of IPL experience, including new team-mate Arshdeep Singh.

PBKS vs KKR: Anrich Nortje makes Kolkata debut, Josh Inglis in for Marcus Stoinis

Anrich Nortje will be making his Kolkata Knight Riders debut during the clash against Punjab Kings as Josh Inglis comes in for Marcus Stoinis for the clash in Mullanpur on Tuesday, April 15. Xavier Bartlett is also making his IPL debut on Tuesday as Glenn Maxwell retains his spot in the team.

Nortje last played a match in December 2024 and was ruled out of the SA20 and Champions Trophy due to an injury. Nortje comes into the team in place of Moeen Ali, who did well during their win against CSK. The South African pacer's first team in the IPL was KKR but he never played a match for them and spent most of his time being a part of the Delhi Capitals side.

PBKS vs KKR Live Updates: Nortje has picked up 60 wickets in 46 matches in the IPL at an average of 26.23. Stoinis, who hit four sixes in the final over of the PBKS innings against Mohammed Shami, misses out on the game. The reason behind the all-rounder's absence is unknown at the moment.

PBKS also decided to hand a debut to Bartlett, in place of Lockie Ferguson. Ferguson was more or less ruled out of the IPL 2025 season after he suffered an injury during the loss to SRH. Bartlett has played 2 ODIs and 7 T20Is for Australia and picked up 8 and 11 wickets respectively.

PBKS vs KKR: Playing XIs: Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakaravarthy Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey.

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