New Zealand will look to make a strong comeback under the leadership of Mitchell Santner in the upcoming three-match T20I series after being whitewashed in the ODI series by India.
Ahead of the T20I series opener at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi on Friday (January 27), New Zealand’s stand-in captain, Santner, said that his experiences playing under MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming at Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL will help him as captain.
Mitchell Santner said the pre-match press conference in Ranchi: “If you look at both of them (Dhoni and Fleming), they're both very calm and very level-headed, which I like as I feel I'm similar in that respect. To work under and alongside MSD has been a pretty cool experience for a few years now.”
He added, “I guess it's nice to be back at his home ground as well. And Flem (Fleming) — he's the same, very level-headed and keeps it pretty relaxed and that's what we try to do in this set-up as well.”
The all-rounder further stressed that the Black Caps might have lost the ODI series to India, but there were a lot of positives, and they will try to take them forward in the T20I series.
He explained, “I guess the way ODI cricket is going at the moment with high scores, you know it’s not too different to T20. So, banking the experiences in T20 cricket this year will be similar to what we got in the one-day series, where we saw some high scores and good hitting.
I guess trying to bank those experiences from that series, yes, we obviously lost 3-0, but we showed glimpses in games that we want to take forward in this series.”
On being asked would he continue to be calm under pressure while leading the side in India, Santner replied by saying: “Yeah, I guess that’s my nature, and it has been like that for a little while now.”
He signed off by saying, “But obviously, there’s also a bit more nerves (now), and very exciting to captain another series in India — it doesn’t get much better than that. So, definitely looking forward to it and it’s going to be a challenge, no doubt.”
(With PTI Inputs)
