Talented Australian batter Mitchell Owen has been named as an injury replacement by Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the ongoing IPL 2025 season. Owen has been named in place of Glenn Maxwell, who has suffered a fractured finger and has been ruled out of the rest of the IPL.
Owen will join PBKS at the end of his stint with Peshawar Zalmi in the ongoing season of the PSL for INR 3 crore.
“Punjab Kings (PBKS) have picked all-rounder Mitch Owen as a replacement for Glenn Maxwell, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 due to a broken finger. Mitch Owen, from Tasmania, Australia, has played 34 T20s and scored 646 runs, including two centuries and a highest score of 108. The Australian all-rounder also has 10 T20 wickets to his name,” IPL stated.
However, as per the ESPNCricinfo report, Owen will only come to India and join PBKS after the Peshawar Zalmi’s season in PSL 10 ends. Zalmi, now ranked fifth out of six PSL teams, will play their last group-stage game on May 9.
Owen's PSL obligations might last until the May 18 final, two days after PBKS' last group-stage match but before the IPL playoffs begin, if Zalmi advance to the playoffs.
Despite not making the final selection, Owen was eligible to be a replacement player at the IPL since he registered for the auction late last year.
The 23-year-old Tasmanian top-order batsman Owen sprang to fame at the most recent BBL tournament, where he led the league in runs scored and was instrumental in the Hobart Hurricanes' run to victory.
He won Player-of-the-Match with a score of 108 off 42 balls in the final. With an average of 45.20 and a strike rate of 203.60, Owen amassed 452 runs from 11 innings. Since then, he has participated in the PSL and SA20. Owen's achievement as the Hurricanes' director of strategy in the BBL has been closely monitored by Ricky Ponting, the Australian head coach of PBKS.
Interestingly, Owens joined the PSL 10 as a replacement for Corbin Bosch in Peshawar Zalmi. Bosch has ditched the PSL, after he was picked by Mumbai Indians (MI) as a replacement for the injured Lizaad Williams.
