The Gujarat Titans (GT) have announced Connor Esterhuizen as the injury replacement for Tom Banton. The English wicketkeeper batter hadn’t played for GT in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 yet, with Glenn Phillips getting the nod to play as the fourth overseas player in the middle order.
Tom Banton out of IPL 2026 with injury
Banton, who was coming off a good run in the T20 World Cup 2026, was definitely an option for GT, considering Phillips isn’t having a great run himself in IPL 2026. However, that won’t be happening now. Banton, who was bought for INR 2 crore, has sustained a finger injury, which one can presume happened during practice.
He became the fourth Englishman to be replaced due to injury, with Rajasthan Royals’ Sam Curran and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Brydon Carse and David Payne getting out of the IPL 2026 for similar reasons. GT had named South African batter Connor Esterhuizen as his replacement for INR 75 lakh for the remainder of the season.
Who is Connor Esterhuizen?
Esterhuizen is a 24-year-old batter from Johannesburg and plays for Lions in domestic cricket. He has a great first-class and List A record, but his numbers in T20 cricket don’t really pop out. However, he’s already played in the SA20 and ILT20. In March, he made his international debut against New Zealand.
Due to most centrally contracted players travelling to India for IPL 2026, Esterhuizen found himself in the reckoning for the 5-match T20I series away from home. Esterhuizen had a great time, scoring 200 runs. The next highest scorer was Devon Conway with 100 runs.
His last 2 innings were both half-centuries. He was named the ‘player of the series’ as South Africa won 3-2. This was enough for franchises to consider him a viable option, and now GT has secured him as an injury replacement. Who knows, he might make his IPL debut as well. And considering his form, it may not be a bad call from GT, who are struggling with middle-order batting.
Connor Esterhuizen’s T20 stats
| Format | Innings | Runs | Highest Score | Average | Strike Rate | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T20Is | 5 | 200 | 75 | 50.00 | 145.98 | 2 |
| T20s | 39 | 926 | 75 | 28.93 | 129.87 | 5 |
