Josh Inglis admits Australia team-mates joke about English accent ahead of Ashes series

Ashes hopeful Josh Inglis admits he gets stick for sounding English as he prepares to don the baggy green cap for the first time.

Inglis is vying with Alex Carey to replace the disgraced Tim Paine behind the stumps for Australia in Brisbane next week.

The 26-year-old grew up in Leeds but moved to Perth weeks before his 15th birthday and has since struggled to mask his origins.

Josh Inglis is pushing to replace Tim Paine as Australia’s wicketkeeper in the Ashes

Asked at Australia’s pre-series camp if his team-mates ribbed him for his accent, he said ‘a little bit,’ adding: ‘I sort of lost it last year, but I went over to the UK for the summer and I kind of picked up the twang again.’

Parents Martin, a tiler, and Sarah, an airport worker, fell in love with the Australian lifestyle on holiday and emigrated in early 2010.

‘There might be a bit of banter thrown over the dinner table, but other than that I’m sure they’d be happy for me,’ Inglis said, of the prospect of making an international debut against the country of his birth.

‘As a kid growing up in England, I supported England. Obviously, that’s all changed now, moving to Australia.

Inglis has been performing well and is vying for a spot in the side with Alex Carey

‘A few of the boys were joking around at the World Cup that I was singing the English national anthem, which was definitely not the case.’

Despite not being in Australia’s plans at the start of 2021, Inglis was preferred to Carey in the 15-man squad for the recent Twenty20 tournament in the UAE and could now follow suit in Tests.

The former Yorkshire second XI player struck 585 runs – more than any other wicketkeeper – at an eye-watering strike rate of 85 in last year’s Sheffield Shield and staked his claim further by extending that form into spells with Leicestershire and London Spirit.

Inglis impressed for London Spirit in the Hundred and has a growing reputation