Santner returns from injury to lead NZ in T20 World Cup warm-up

Dec 24 : White ‌ball captain Mitchell Santner and seamers Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry have all been declared fit for New Zealand's upcoming Twenty20 series against India, their final preparation for next year's World Cup.

Santner, who missed the recent test series against West Indies with a groin strain, will skip the three one-day internationals in India in early January as he continues his recovery.

The spinner will be back to lead the side in five T20s later that ‌month, ahead of the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka ‌from February 7 to March 8.

Henry missed the latter part of the West Indies series with a calf injury and will also skip the ODI series as part of his managed return.

Jamieson was rested for the West Indies test series but returns to a pace unit missing Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne, who are both playing T20 franchise league cricket and will join the squad towards ‍the end of the tour.

Seamers Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes made impressive starts to their international careers this year and will both be on the plane to India, but Will O'Rourke, who has a back issue, and Blair Tickner, who dislocated his shoulder, were unavailable.

Devon Conway has decided to cut short his ​spell in the SA20 league in ‌South Africa to play both series and is the only wicketkeeper-batsman named in the T20 squad.

New Zealand, who finished runners-up in the 2021 T20 World Cup, face South ​Africa, Afghanistan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates in the group stage of next year's tournament.

"Playing in the ⁠sub-continent is obviously very different to what ‌we're used to in New Zealand," said coach Rob Walter.

"Any opportunity we can get to expose ​our guys to those conditions can only be a good thing, especially prior to a T20