IPL 2025: Who is Mitchell Owen, BBL record-breaker replacing Glenn Maxwell at Punjab Kings?

Punjab Kings on Sunday announced Australian youngster Mitchell Owen as the replacement for his senior compatriot and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who was recently ruled out of the IPL 2025 season with an injury.

The 23-year-old will travel from his current Pakistan base as he featured for Peshawar Zalmi as recently as Friday in Lahore.

Who is Mitchell Owen?

In January 2025, Owen made the headlines when he smashed the joint-fastest Big Bash League (BBL) century in the final for Hobart Hurricanes, leading them to the title triumph over Sydney Thunder. Owen obliterated the record books with his 39-ball century, equalling Craig Simmons’ 39-ball ton fro BBL 03.

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The Tasmania-born batter made his BBL debut in 2021 but fell short of a consistent run. However, Owen ended up smashing the batting charts in BBL 14, scoring 452 runs, including two hundreds in 11 matches. Interestingly, despite only amassing over 600 runs in the format, the hard-hitting batter has already racked up two hundreds.

Barely believable 🤯 Mitch Owen has hit NINE SIXES in 30 balls. #BBL14 pic.twitter.com/pqWNe0Vk5j — KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 27, 2025

Owen’s cricket journey began with a state contract with Tasmania in 2020, an opportunity which came on the back of 415 runs at an average of 60 in the 2019-20 Under-19 National Championships.

Owen has also impressed in his brief outings in List A and First-Class cricket. Shortly after his BBL final exploits, Owen blitzed in Australia’s domestic One Day Cup, smashing a 48-ball century for Tasmania against South Australia. Owen’s knock was the fourth fastest List A hundred ever by an Australia man and the second-quickest in One Day Cup history, only behind Jake Fraser-McGurk’s 28-ball ton.

What happened to Maxwell?

Meanwhile, Maxwell was ruled out of the tournament on Thursday, with PBKS revealing a finger fracture for the Aussie all-rounder. Maxwell had a middling tournament so far: scoring just 48 runs in his six innings. He has struggled so much that in his last four games, he’s managed just single-digit scores. He came with a lot of expectations at the franchise, which bought him for Rs 4.2 crore at the IPL mega auction before the start of this season.

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