Only a few hours remain before the start of the India versus New Zealand T20I series. And while it’s not that he likes to evade headlines, it’s simply that Mitch Santner is a name in New Zealand cricket
that might not generate a lot of pre game hype. That’s primarily because true to the quintessential Kiwi nature of performances speaking for the player, Santner, doesn’t talk much.
But then nor does Mitch Santner do a lot many interviews and being a genuine example of BlackCaps’s ‘commitment-to-the-cause-culture’, remains buried behind his players.
However, truth be told the fine figurehead of New Zealand cricket in its current avatar, where there’s no more Tim Southee or Trent Boult, is more focused on getting the best out of his gaggle of talents that are as exciting as they are enterprising.
A Michael Bracewell can chip in with a few key overs besides hitting the white ball over a strike rate of over 133. A certain Glenn Dominic Phillips, 63 T20I catches in the format already, can hit the ball so hard that it can bring a smile to some massively successful achievers in the format who became legends long before the right hander even arrived in the game- Gayle and Afridi being just a few of them.
And while so much rests on the shoulders of the always thinking captain who operates with zero shenanigans that perhaps it didn’t even occur to us fans as to how close he stands today to a major landmark in the game.
So let’s take the bull by the horns the way Santner takes on hard hitting batters by finding a way to restrict their run making.
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What major T20I landmark is Mitch Santner nearing?
He currently has no fewer than 142 wickets in the shortest format from just 138 games. And he needs, therefore, just 8 more wickets to reach 150 T20I wickets in this sphere of the game.
In so doing, he’ll be the most successful wicket taker from the present lot that constitutes the T20I side for New Zealand. But while there’s little doubt about Santner getting there, there’s something heroic about his performances with the ball as well.
He’s maintained an economy of just over 7 runs an over. In today’s wham bam style of age where cricket often likes as though batters operate against bowlers the way Jean Claude Van Damme operated against his on screen nemesis’s, Santner’s feat must be lauded. What do you reckon?
