Santner takes over the side after Kane Williamson decided to step down from the captaincy position following New Zealand’s mediocre performance in the T20 World Cup 2024.
Newly recruited Mumbai Indians (MI) all-rounder Mitchell Santner has been appointed full-time captain of New Zealand’s white-ball teams. MI bought him at INR 2 crores in the IPL 2025 auction.
Santner takes over the side after Kane Williamson decided to step down from the captaincy position following New Zealand’s mediocre performance in the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and USA, where they had an early exit. Under him, New Zealand did exceptionally well across white-ball formats, and his contributions as a batter were massive.
Santner was named an interim captain for the T20I and ODI for the Sri Lanka series last month and was always expected to become the full-time leader, even though New Zealand didn’t have much success on the tour. Santner labelled leading New Zealand an “honour” and “privilege”.
“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. 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.”
Santner’s tenure starts with home white-ball series against Sri Lanka
Mitchell Santner will officially start his tenure as a permanent white-ball captain from the ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka at home, starting later this month. The series consists of three T20I matches and as many ODIs.
Following this series, New Zealand will be involved in a tri-series in Pakistan, the Champions Trophy, and again a home white-ball series against Pakistan. So, Santner has his task cut out right after getting the captaincy responsibilities and will play a crucial role in a smooth transition at the helm.
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He has previously led New Zealand in 24 T20Is and four ODIs. Santner has vast experience playing for New Zealand, having represented them in 107 ODIs and 106 T20Is.
Meanwhile, Tom Latham will continue leading the Test side of New Zealand. Overall, there have been drastic changes in the captaincy department across formats for the Kiwis lately.
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