New Zealand will be without their white-ball captain, Mitchell Santner, for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Australia at home, as they declared the 14-member squad with Kyle Jamieson returning to the side. Santner underwent abdominal surgery last month and was expected to have fully recovered, which hasn’t been the case for the series to be played on October 1, 3, and 4 in Mount Maunganui.

Lockie Ferguson has been ruled out of the series with a hamstring injury, while Adam Milne has a foot injury. Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips, and Finn Allen are already out of the first home series of the season, while Kane Williamson, their former captain, made himself unavailable, besides anticipating a return for the England series.

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“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.” The Blackcaps head coach, Rob Walter, expressed in a media statement.

No Mitchell Santner in New Zealand’s T20I squad for home series against Australia

Jamieson and Sears have been named after missing the Zimbabwe and South Africa tri-series in July. The former missed the last series due to the birth of his first child, while Sears was ruled out with a side injury. Devon Conway, signing a casual agreement, has retained his place after a late call-up to Zimbabwe.

“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. So we want to make sure we've got as many options as we possibly can have.” Walter addressed during the statement.

“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.” The former Protea head coach added.

New Zealand T20I squad vs Australia

Michael Bracewell (captain), 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