He will now hope to travel separately and rejoin the squad for the second T20I in Hamilton on January 14. Santner’s exit is a big blow for the team, because now the Kiwi team will have to take the field without him in the first T20 match and reach the target of victory.

New Zealand Cricket Board gave a big statement regarding Mitchell Santner

New Zealand Cricket issued a statement regarding Mitchell Santner saying, “Mitch Santner will not travel to Eden Park for the opening KFC T20I match against Pakistan after testing positive for COVID this evening. “He will continue to be monitored in the coming days and will travel alone to his home in Hamilton.”

The Pakistan and New Zealand T20 series will start with the first match to be played in Auckland and the second match to be played in Hamilton on 14 January. The third T20 match will be played in Dunedin, while the last two matches will be played in Christchurch.

Talking about Mitchell Santner’s statistics in the T20I format, he has been excellent so far. The star all-rounder has impressed everyone with his bowling skills by taking 105 wickets in 91 innings. As a left-handed batsman, he contributed 610 runs in this format.

On the other hand, if we talk about Pakistan, Pakistan has announced its playing XI just a few hours before the match to be played in Auckland. With the loss of captaincy, the opening slot has also gone from the hands of Babar Azam. He has got the number-3 position in this Pakistani team led by Shaheen Afridi.

Also read: This former veteran cricketer admired the captaincy of Rohit Sharma