Josh Inglis will rejoin Australia’s Test squad before the second Test against South Africa in Gqeberha, which starts on October 18. Code Sports first reported the news and Cricinfo confirmed it on October 10.
His fractured finger did not need surgery, and a recent scan showed promising progress. Whether he plays at Gqeberha depends on how the finger holds up in the days before the match. AAP reports that officials will decide whether he is fit for the second Test or the third.
A wicketkeeper’s broken finger heals in two stages, and only one of them has to be ready for Gqeberha.
Inglis fractured his right index finger while keeping wicket in the first ODI in Durban on September 24. He stayed behind the stumps and batted at No. 4. He was then ruled out of the rest of the ODI series and sent home to Perth for treatment.
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His absence cost Australia more than one batter. Inglis covered both batting and keeping, so Australia needed two call-ups to replace him: Sam Harper and Nic Maddinson.
“It really turned into two players replacing Josh Inglis. 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.”
Andrew McDonald, Australia head coach, quoted by Cricinfo, October 2026
Insider Read
Australia cricketer Keeping and batting ask very different things of an index finger. Behind the stumps, the finger meets the ball every delivery, all day. Even a clean take sends a jolt through the glove. One ball that dips late and hits the tip, and a healing fracture takes a step back.
Batting is kinder. The finger sits wrapped around the handle inside a padded glove, and the real danger is a ball that rears up into the hands. That is why his realistic way back is as a batter, the role he has played in all five of his Tests. Australia do not need his gloves. Alex Carey has them. They need his runs.
What His Return Means for Australia’s Batting Order
The first Test in Durban showed how much his absence cost. Maddinson, playing his first first-class match since March 2025, opened and made a 33-ball duck, the longest by an Australian opener in Tests.
Matt Renshaw moved down to No. 5 and rescued Australia from 4-84 and 6-124. He went on to make his second Test hundred on day two.
AAP expects Renshaw to move back up to open if Inglis or Cameron Green returns. That would put Maddinson’s place under pressure. McDonald has said Green, who has an abdominal strain, is unlikely to be available as an allrounder for the rest of the series.
Inglis’s Test record is modest: 184 runs at 26.28 from five Tests. His last Test was in Adelaide during last summer’s Ashes, where he made 32 and 10.
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