On December 18, 2024, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) appointed Mitchell Santner as the new men’s white-ball captain. This comes on the back of Kane Williamson giving up the responsibility after the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Santner has experience leading New Zealand in limited-overs cricket, having captained the team in 24 T20Is and four ODIs. But now he will be leading New Zealand for the first time in full-time capacity.
The left-arm spinner’s first assignment will be against Sri Lanka as New Zealand host them for three T20Is and as many ODIs in late December 2024.
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“It’s obviously a huge honour and a privilege to be asked. When you’re a young kid the dream was always to play for New Zealand but to have the opportunity to officially lead my country in two formats is special,” Santner said.
“It’s a huge honour and a privilege.”
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) December 17, 2024
Hear from Mitchell Santner on his appointment as the new BLACKCAPS white ball captain 🏏 #CricketNation pic.twitter.com/dxWKij1f5Z
“It’s a new challenge and I’m excited to get stuck into the important period of white ball cricket that we have ahead of us. There’s obviously a little bit of a changing of the guard with some of our experienced players at the back end of their careers,” he further added.
The Kiwi head coach, Gary Stead, explained the reason behind Santner’s appointment. He said New Zealand have an experienced captain in Tom Latham, but they wanted him to focus on his Test captaincy.
So they went with Santner’s name to appoint him as the full-time captain in ODIs and T20Is. Santner’s calm demeanour has also worked in his favour, along with his previous captaincy stints with the team.
Out of his 24 T20Is as the Kiwi skipper, he led the team over the ropes 13 times, while in the four ODIs, he managed to win one game.
