Mitchell Santner claims Mumbai Indians gave him half salary after injury ruled him out of IPL 2026

New Zealand’s white-ball captain Mitchell Santner claims that he was half of his Rs 2 crore salary by Mumbai Indians (MI) as he left the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to an injury while playing for them. Santner says that the salary cut hurt him a little bit.

Ahead of the first Test against New Zealand, Santner was asked the question on Grade Cricketer Podcast about allegations of faking an injury to leave the IPL 2026. The allegations surfaced as Santner was named in the Test squad for England series less than a week to go into the game.

“Well, they gave me half my cash, so that actually hurt a little bit,” Satner replied.

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“I got there, missed the first game, birth of my second child, got there straight off the plane, played Delhi, did [injured] my right shoulder, out for kind of week.

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“I came back a couple of games later, did [injured] my left and went home. So I did [injured] two shoulders in the space of kind of two weeks. So I thought I was putting my body on the line for them, but obviously not.”

How Santner performed in IPL 2026?

Santner played five games in total for MI in IPL 2026. He claimed five wickets at an average of 25. His economy rate was 8.92 runs per over. He was officially ruled out of IPL 2026 on April 27. South Africa’s left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj was named as his replacement.

Santner recovered from injury earlier than expected

Santner further clarified that he was supposed to be on the sidelines for eight weeks but recovered earlier than expected and will be playing the Test series opener at the Lord’s, commencing on June 4.

“It kind of was supposed to be an eight-week injury, turned it about four, just Lazarus kind of stuff and now I'm getting sprayed in the media,” the spin-bowling all-rounder said.

However, as per the IPL rules, if a player gets injured during the IPL season, he gets the amount he was signed up for at the auction. MI are yet to respond to Santner’s claim of getting paid half the amount he was roped in for in the mega auction and then retained for 2026. The franchise is yet to respond to Santner’s claims or the conversation had between them when the Kiwi all-rounder left the camp.