u/AnxiousPigeon24

He's had 4 poor franchise tournaments in a row:

ILT20 2025-26: average 28, economy 8.00

IPL 2026: average 141, economy 12.81

MLC 2026: average 165, economy 11.00

The Hundred 2026: average 24.22, economy 9.08

This is in addition to a poor T20 World Cup. Outside that tournament, he's played 4 matches for NZ in the last 2 years. He is 35, which is not really an age at which fast bowlers usually tend to improve. He'll be 37 by the next T20 World Cup.

Personally I'd be looking elsewhere for the upcoming T20s against India, even if he's fit and available.

At the time of writing.

Santner: 5977 balls, 135 wickets at average 35.40, economy 4.79, SR 44.2, 2 5WI

Styris: 6114 balls, 137 wickets at average 35.32, economy 4.74, SR 44.6, 1 5WI

This post isn't meant to be disparaging to either player, it's just an interesting statistical quirk. I've always thought Styris was a bit underrated as an ODI all-rounder, so you could point to this as a point in his favour that he has a comparable record to one of NZ's great middle-order bowlers.

Equally, of course, he played in a different era of ODI cricket, so you could regard it as a point in Santner's favour that he maintains a record similar to an ODI middle-overs bowler in the 2000s despite playing in the late 2010s to 2020s.

Might have been lost in all the excitement but we have a 5-match ODI series in the West Indies coming up in 2 weeks, from July 12 to 21. Will be interesting with relatively little ODI cricket being played these days, and the World Cup in a year.

I'd guess the squad will look something like

Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, Glenn Phillips (if fit), Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Will O'Rourke (if fit), Dean Foxcroft, Josh Clarkson, Matt Henry (if fit), Jacob Duffy 

Personally I'd be inclined to consider resting O'Rourke and Henry even if fit and bring in Tickner and Foulkes.

Ravindra, Santner and Henry are all playing in The Hundred which starts on July 21 so I suppose they might miss some or all of the tour