Mitchell Santner- From withholder to dominator

But isn’t it a saying that ‘God resides in one and all’? Well, if that is the case, then Santner has nurtured that potent force in himself and materialised it into a form that bears fruit for himself and his team. However, this God that we’re talking about is not as ostentatious as Plant’s badass ways. This God is nonchalant and has limitations. 

These limitations that I’m talking about were ruthlessly exposed by the Aussies, in their den, recently. The likes of Mark Waugh heavily criticized Santner’s inclusion in the Test setup. "He's a one-day bowler, not a Test match bowler. If you're an orthodox bowler the one thing you've got to have is accuracy, yet he doesn't have that. I think it's a real big issue and the reason why they can't win this Test," Waugh blatantly said, as quoted by Fox Sports. Be it their selection conundrum, or their injury woes, New Zealand were struggling back in Australia, especially missing the services of Trent Boult. 

Now with Boult being away due to a hand injury, we might have thought that India has been relieved of its biggest threat. India are touring New Zealand for a full-fledged series, starting with five T20Is from January 24, with the hosts being short of major pacers (count Lockie Ferguson’s injury too). Quite naturally, seasoned pacer Tim Southee will be expected to spearhead the attack at home. However, the threat was never Boult or a Southee, but Mitchell Santner-- who is enjoying the T20I form of his life. 

The left-arm orthodox bowler was struggling to bag wickets in the Test series in Australia, before he was ruled out of the final game, alongside captain Kane Williamson, and Henry Nicholls, due to illness. But now the illness is gone, and so has his grip over a format. As in T20Is, his talent has evolved, over the years, into expertise. He has risen above the image of just an economical bowler and turned into a genuine wicket-taker in the shortest format. 

In fact, we were all witness to when the metamorphosis happened. Skipper Williamson had stunned one and all in the 2016 WT20 game between India when New Zealand by dropping the Boult-Southee duo. After the visitors posted a mere total of 126, Indian fans were confident of a win. It was supposed to be huge since India had never won a T20 International match against the Kiwis then. However, to the fans’ dismay, Mitchell Santner had scripted a whole different ending to the story.  The Nagpur pitch - his mistress- and the ball- his spouse- Santner produced the best bowling performance of his career, in its nascent stages. Kissing the rank turner to his control, he dismissed Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya. Hence, leaving no hope for India- who were bowled out for 79. As New Zealand quite comfortable defended their 126, it displayed what they could do without their ace bowlers- Boult and Southee- with Santner in the forefront.

That ‘leap of faith’ by Williamson was but a foreteller of what the picture is today.  How Santner has fared in the past year - especially since the World Cup final, with major players being away, shows his grip over the shortest format. A month after the Lord’s debacle, New Zealand toured Sri Lanka and while the veterans played the Test series, in the T20Is the Kiwis missed the services of their captain as well as Boult. While Tim Southee donned captaincy duties, Santner became his most reliable ally, not only in that series but at home against England too. In eight matches since July 14, the now seasoned spinner bagged 15 wickets at an economy of 6.96 while averaging 13.93- the best amongst bowlers from Test playing nations. 

Taking the year 2019 holistically into account, it also included the bilateral clash between India and New Zealand, preceding the World Cup. While India steamrolled the home team in its 4-1 victory in the ODI series, the succeeding three-match T20I series was witness to New Zealand rising from the Ashes of its momentum. The visitors were completely stacked with their bowling attack, especially pace, but they had probably not foreseen spinners bagging the highest number of wickets in the series, and definitely not with Santner topping the table. Mapping his control and variation on the pitch, and trapping the batsmen in it, Santner got the better of Rishabh Pant and Shikhar Dhawan with his yorkers. He bagged four wickets across the first and third T20Is, while the only wicketless game- the second match- was the one that New Zealand lost as well. 

Over the year, the southpaw has only gotten better and this time there’s a bigger goal in front of the 2019 World Cup finalists. It’s time again for the underrated Santner to come to the forefront and help New Zealand form a strong base ahead of the WT20 challenge, that starts in October this year. Because, remember, if a Plant or a Page or a Bonham gave you ‘Stairway to Heaven’, then ‘The song remains the same’ owes its beauty to Jones’ sheer brilliance.