Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra in, Mitchell Santner to lead as New Zealand announce squad for T20I tri-series against South Africa, Zimbabwe

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Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra in, Mitchell Santner to lead as New Zealand announce squad for T20I tri-series against South Africa, Zimbabwe
New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra (L) celebrates with teammate Glenn Phillips after scoring a century (100 runs) during the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup

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T20I Tri-series featuring New Zealand, Zimbabwe and South Africa will start from July 14.

Kane Williamson is unavailable for T20I tri-series featuring SA, ZIM and NZ.

New Zealand Cricket Board have announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming T20I tri-series featuring South Africa and hosts Zimbabwe, scheduled to take place next month. The Blackcaps welcomed back several key players likes of  Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, and skipper Mitchell Santner for the tri-series at Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe, after the trio sat out their most recent T20I series against Pakistan on home soil in March.

The Blackcaps also added uncapped batter Bevon Jacobs and pacer Adam Milne into the squad. Pacer pace trio Ben Sears (side injury), Lockie Ferguson (load management) and Kyle Jamieson (family) set to miss the series and veteran batter Kane Williamson (unavailable). 

The upcoming series will be first assignment for Rob Walter as a head coach and he will look to form a crucial lead-up for the side ahead of next year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup which will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka. 

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"I think we've got a really strong squad for this tour and I'm looking forward to getting the team together and getting into the work," he said, as quoted from the official website of the ICC.

 

"We've got some good experience in the side and it's nice to be able to welcome back a few of the players who missed the March series against Pakistan because of the IPL (Indian Premier League)," he added.

 

"It should be a great T20 tri-series with South Africa who are a very strong side and Zimbabwe who play well at home in their own conditions," Walter said.

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Walter is hoping to use the tri-series to help find combinations that can be successful during the 2026 T20 World Cup.

"With the T20 World Cup around the corner, all of our upcoming series are critically important to our build up," he added.

 

"This series gives us the opportunity to test the breadth of our squad, explore different players and potentially different combinations against some quality opposition," he said.

New Zealand's first game in the tri-series will be against South Africa in Harare on July 16.

New Zealand squad: Mitchell Santner (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi.