Captain Santner ruled out, Jamieson returns as New Zealand name 14-member squad for T20I series against Australia

Wellington [New Zealand], September 16 (ANI): New Zealand will line up without its white-ball captain, Mitchell Santner, who has been ruled out of their upcoming T20I series against Australia. In Santner’s absence, Michael Bracewell will lead a 14-man squad, which features Kyle Jamieson and Ben Sears but remains bereft of Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne due to injury.

Santner underwent abdominal surgery last month and remained hopeful about regaining his fitness in time to be available for the three fixtures in Australia during the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup. But he failed to recover in time for the series, which will be held on October 1, 3, and 4 in Mount Maunganui.

“Never nice to lose your skipper. But these things do happen. And Michael has already been the captain of this team and did a great job against Pakistan. So fully confident in how he will lead the team,” New Zealand coach Rob Walter said in a statement by NZC.

Tearaway Ferguson has been ruled out of the enticing affair with a hamstring injury, while Milne is nursing a foot injury. Lanky quick Will O’Rourke (back), all-rounder Glenn Phillips (groin) and opener Finn Allen (foot) had already been ruled out of New Zealand’s first home series of the season. New Zealand’s talismanic batter Kane Williamson made himself unavailable but is expected to return for the white-ball series against England.

Jamieson and Sears returned to the fold after missing the tri-series in Zimbabwe in July. Jamieson was absent due to the birth of his first child, while Sears missed out due to a side injury.

“He’s worked incredibly hard over the last 12 weeks to be back on the park and done some awesome work there. So we’re excited to see him back in the competitive fold. “We’re building a bigger base of fast bowlers, because we understand that the program is so busy these days, but fast bowling is a key requisite for performance,” Walter said.

“So we want to make sure we’ve got as many options as we possibly can have. He’s worked incredibly hard over the last 12 weeks to be back on the park and done some awesome work there,” he said. “So we’re excited to see him back in the competitive fold,” he added.

Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has been retained in the squad amid Santner’s absence. Sodhi featured in two of New Zealand’s five matches in Zimbabwe and missed out on the final despite returning with figures of 2/34 and 4/12. Devon Conway, who signed a casual playing agreement with the Blackcaps, has retained his place.

In their upcoming assignment, Walter expects New Zealand to face an aggressive brand of cricket against Australia and said, “[They play a] very aggressive brand, which is cool. I think that puts you under pressure. It certainly allows us to explore a few different options as to how we want to play against them, because it seems like they are coming with a very specific way that they want to play. So it’ll be a lovely test.”

New Zealand T20I squad vs Australia: Michael Bracewell (capt), Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Robinson, Ben Sears, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi. (ANI)

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