Mumbai Indians allrounder Mitchell Santner to miss first Test against England next month, confirms New Zealand Cricket

The allrounder featured in just four games in the 2026 Indian Premier League.

Updated on: May 1, 2026, 13:42:49 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has confirmed that its white-ball captain Mitchell Santner has been sidelined for at least a month due to a grade-three ACL shoulder injury. The allrounder played four games for Mumbai Indians in the 2026 Indian Premier League before the injury cut short his stint a few days back.

Mitchell Santner's injury is also a big setback to Mumbai Indians. (AP)

“BLACKCAPS all-rounder and white-ball captain Mitchell Santner is set to be sidelined for at least a month after scans revealed a grade three ACL shoulder injury.

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“Santner injured his left shoulder while fielding for his Indian Premier League side, the Mumbai Indians, in their recent match against the Chennai Super Kings [on April 23].

“The 34-year-old returned home to New Zealand this week and saw a specialist this morning who confirmed a rest and rehabilitation period of at least one month,” a NZC press release said.

The New Zealand-Bangladesh T20I series is already underway. Later this month, there is a one-off Test against Ireland in Belfast, which means Santner for sure won’t be available for that game. In early June, New Zealand will travel to England for a three-Test series and Santner, as per the NZC press release, is also going to miss the first game that kicks off on June 4. His participation in the rest of the Tests is subject to how fit he is at that time.

Big blow, for sure!

“The diagnosis means Santner is unavailable for the one-off Test against Ireland and the first Test against England, with his availability for the second and third Tests to be evaluated at a later date.

“The full squad for the Ireland and England Tests is set to be named in the coming days. The one-off four-day Test against Ireland begins at Stormont in Belfast on May 27, with the three Tests against England to be played at Lord’s (June 4-8), The Oval (June 17-21) and Trent Bridge (June 25-29), respectively,” the release said.

In the four matches that Santner played in the IPL, he took five wickets. By his high standards, he was a bit expensive, it has to be said, with an economy rate of almost 9. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings, he was particularly expensive. Twice, he got the opportunity to bat, and he remained unbeaten in those two innings against Delhi Capitals and RCB.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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