Veteran New Zealand player Mitchell Santner has officially been appointed captain of New Zealand’s white-ball sides. He took over full-time from the veteran Kane Williamson, who stepped down following the Black Caps’ early exit from the T20 World Cup in the USA & West Indies as well.

Santner, who is one of only four players to play for the country over 100 times each in the two white-ball formats, has already led the team in 24 T20Is and 4 ODIs including their last assignment in Sri Lanka last month as well. His tenure as a full-time captain will start with the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka in late December and early January. The two series start the white ball-cricket for New Zealand, which includes an ODI tri Series in Pakistan in February, followed by the ICC Champions Trophy and a home T20I and ODI series against Pakistan as well.

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

Meanwhile, Head coach Gary Stead also said that the decision to hand Mitchell Santner the mantle of the white-ball teams was to allow red-ball captain Tom Latham to focus more on Test cricket.

“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,” he added.