New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner to miss a few games of Tri Series against Bangladesh and Pakistan, replacement announced

The Tri-Series between New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Pakistan will start on October 7. The series will start with Bangladesh vs Pakistan game in Christchurch. New Zealand will play its first match against Pakistan on October 8. Ahead of the series, the home team’s left-arm spinner, Mitchell Santner has pulled out of the first game of the series. Apparently, he is awaiting the birth of his child.

The left-arm spinner is expected to join the team on October 8. He has been replaced by pacer Blair Tickner. Notably, the team has the option of playing leg-spinner, Ish Sodhi and all-rounder, Michael Bracewell. It is also important to note that Tickner is not part of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 squad. On the other hand, he is one of the players who has gotten a national contract.

This is the first Tri-Series between full members after a long time

Over the years, Tri-Series wasn’t a common thing in international cricket. There was a time when tri-nations were part of the Future Tours Programme. From 2000 to 2010, there were 57 series (ODI and T20I) involving three or more teams. However, from 2011 to 2017, the numbers severely dropped to 10. Now that the tri-nation concept has returned, it is also important to note that this series will serve as the preparation for the 20-20 World Cup 2022.

The Kiwis haven’t played any T20Is since August this year. On the other hand, Pakistan recently hosted England and now has too many questions to answer. Talking about Bangladesh, they played a two-match T20I series against the UAE and won it convincingly. Now, all three teams will be looking to fine-tune their preparations for the World Cup. Especially Pakistan, who is facing the middle order batting issue which was exposed during the Asia Cup 2022