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England star Ben Duckett has pulled out of this year's IPL in a desperate bid to reboot his faltering international career. Duckett, 31, has also apologised for a drunken incident during the Ashes over the winter.

The batsman was set to play for Delhi Capitals in this year's IPL on a lucrative £200,000 per season deal, but he's informed team bosses that he won't be featuring in the 2026 edition which starts this weekend. Duckett is now facing a three-year ban from the IPL, a tournament which he's never featured in, because of the pull-out.

It comes after a winter which 'couldn't really have gone much worse' for him. Duckett's lacklustre performances opening the batting were among the biggest disappointments for England in Australia, as they fell to a hapless 4-1 defeat.

The Nottinghamshire star suffered further embarrassment when a video appearing to show him drunk while on a night out in Noosa during a break between Tests was posted online, with England 2-0 down. It led to an ECB investigation and Duckett has apologised.

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"The build-up to the Boxing Day Test was one of the toughest moments of my career, but I'm so grateful for the support I received from England and (manager director) Rob Key," Duckett told the Telegraph. "I am sorry for that incident, it was not professional and shouldn't have happened. There is no hiding away from it."

The 31-year-old, who'll be signed to play for Trent Rockets in this summer's Hundred, also said: "Everything I had done for four years was building to that moment. And this could have been the best 12 months of my life.

"I got married in October, then hoped to win the Ashes down under, play a World Cup and win that. That was my vision at the start of the winter. The getting married bit is there, and I'm so happy about that! But after that? It couldn't really have gone much worse."

Duckett was recently in India and Sri Lanka for the T20 World Cup but didn't play a single match, leaving him to question his England future across all formats. "Not playing in the World Cup, and being on the sidelines in India after such a tough Ashes series was a struggle for me," he admitted.

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"But it's lit a massive fire in my belly moving forward. I don't know where I stand, or what is to come. I've learnt a lot in the last year. Going from how I was being spoken about during the India series [last summer], to how I am spoken about now. That's a ridiculously big dip.

"It's not just what I've learnt from my failures this winter, but what I've learnt if and when I am playing my best again, all that noise and how to manage it. Some of the failures might have come with the expectations I had after the India Test series, being on top of the world. I put a lot of expectation on myself. I will learn from both sides of it."