Mitchell Santner has been appointed captaincy of New Zealand for both white-ball formats on Wednesday after a six-month hiatus caused by Kane Williamson’s withdrawal among peers. November 30 will mark the commencement of Santner’s official captaincy when New Zealand will entertain Sri Lanka in a three-match home ODI series. The 32-year-old previously captained New Zealand in 28 white ball games, including a few during his stand-in period after Williamson suspended the role following the T20 World Cup in June. Santner remarked this full-time engagement as a “huge honour”.
“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,” he said.
“New experience; I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into this important period we’ve got coming up in white ball cricket.”
Gary Stead, New Zealand coach, said Santner will be a “calm and collected” approach to captaincy, but allows Test captain Tom Latham to concentrate on the longer format.
“Tom’s doing a great job as full-time Test captain since taking over in October, and we’re keen to allow him to focus on that job which requires a considerable amount of time and energy,” Stead said.
Santner’s nomination comes exactly a day after the Kiwi international was named man of the match following his spectacular performance that saw New Zealand beat England by a whopping 423 runs in the third Test at Hamilton.
He bagged seven wickets while scoring 76 and 49 with the bat.
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