New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on December 18 announced Mitchell Santner as their captain for white-ball teams. The appointment comes months after Kane Williamson stepped down as captain following the Kiwis' early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024.
"It's obviously a huge honour and a privilege to be asked," said Santner after the official appointment. "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."
Santner's captaincy record
Santner recently led New Zealand in Sri Lanka as a stand-in captain. From four ODIs as captain, New Zealand have won one and lost two. In T20Is, he made his captaincy debut in 2020. Since then, he has led them in 24 T20Is. New Zealand have won 13, lost nine whereas two did not produce a result.
Head coach Gary Stead explained that Latham was not appointed as captain as they want him to focus on Test cricket.
"In Tom Latham we have an accomplished and experienced captain who has led the side admirably across all three formats," Stead said.
"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."
Santner's first assignment after taking over the reigns
New Zealand will host Sri Lanka for three T20Is and as many ODIs. The T20I series will begin on December 28 whereas the ODI series will start on January 5, 2025. He will also lead them in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 which will be played in hybrid model.