New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has announced their contact list for the 2021-22 season where they have added all-rounder Daryl Mitchell and wicketkeeper Glenn Phillips as well for the first time. However, the batsman Ajaz Patel was left out of the 20-member list.

On the other hand, New Zealand’s most successful Test wicketkeeper-batsman BJ Watling was also dropped from the list after he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after their tour of England. Mitchell, the son of John Mitchell, the England rugby team’s assistant coach, got the reward for scoring his maiden Test and One Day International hundred this year as well.

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Glenn Phillips, however, excelled in the shortest format as well where he smashed a 46-ball century against the West Indies in November – the fastest by a New Zealand player in the Twenty20 format of the game as well.

National contract list: Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Devon Conway, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.

Meanwhile, New Zealand will play against India in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final in Southampton next month. And, former India player Sanjay Manjrekar has said that Ne Zealand will have the upper hand over India in the final. He stated that as he believed the conditions that are on offer at the venue will help the Kiwis.

“If the World Test Championship final is held in India, New Zealand would be sent packing by the hosts inside three days, but that it’s going to be played in England, and that too in the first half of the English summer, makes NZ a much bigger hurdle for India to cross to win the WTC,” he wrote.