Inglis suffered the injury in the first ODI in Durban late last month and returned to Australia for further assessment then the initial stages of his recovery. Having avoided surgery there was always the hope he would be able to return and a recent scan showed promising progress.
His absence from the Test squad for the start of the series left Australia needing to fill two spots with Inglis providing both wicketkeeping and batting cover having played all his five Tests as a specialist batter. Sam Harper was called up from the Australia A tour of India alongside the shock recall for Nic Maddinson.
“It really turned into two players replacing Josh Inglis,” head coach Andrew McDonald said. “If you looked at it like that, it wasn’t [just] another batter coming in. We had sort of flexibility with Josh and then Harper obviously takes the back-up glove role and then you’ve got where we got to with Nic.”
The injuries meant that Australia rejigged their batting order for the first Test with Maddinson being thrust into the opening role in what was his first first-class game since March 2025. He struggled on the opening day, falling for a 33-ball duck which was the longest by an Australian opener in Tests.
However, Matt Renshaw’s move down to No. 5 proved more of a success as he rescued Australia from 84 for 4 and 124 for 6.