New Zealand Announce New White Ball Captain After Kane Williamson Stepped Down

By Jasir Basharat On Dec 18, 2024

Mitchell Santner is set to lead New Zealand’s white-ball teams, taking over from Kane Williamson, who stepped down after the ICC T-20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies earlier this year.

Santner, who has featured in more than 100 matches for New Zealand in both ODIs and T20s, has already led the team in 24 T20Is and 4 ODIs, including during their recent tour of Sri Lanka last month.

He will start his role as captain with a white ball series against Sri Lanka in late December. These two series mark the beginning of a busy period of white-ball cricket for New Zealand, which also features an ODI tri-series in Pakistan in February, the ICC Champions Trophy, and a home T20I and ODI series against Pakistan to wrap up the summer at home.

“It’s obviously a huge honor and a privilege to be asked,” said Santner. “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. 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.”

“I think that’s exciting for the remainder of the group and the young players to now take on the challenge and drive this team forward to further success,” he added.

Head coach Gary Stead believes that appointing Santner as the new white ball captain was to allow Tom Latham to focus on the red ball game.

“In Tom Latham, we have an accomplished and experienced captain who has led the side admirably across all three formats. 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.

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Jasir Basharat

Jasir Basharat is a cricket enthusiast capturing the heart of the game through insightful analysis and storytelling sharing his passion for the sport through engaging narratives. He is a business graduate from University of Kashmir.