In Indian Premier League(IPL), Mitchell Santner is remembered for his last ball winning six for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 season. However, that match is widely remembered for MS Dhoni‘s jibe with the umpire over no-ball. Santner has labelled IPL as the pinnacle of all the T20 tournaments although he has only featured in one season of the cash-rich league.
In 2018, CSK bought Mitchell Santner but injury-plagued all of the plans. He couldn’t play in that season and was out for six to nine months from action because of a knee injury. But the bowling allrounder made a stronger comeback. He featured in four matches and picked four wickets in IPL 2019.
The 28-year-old Mitchell Santner reckons IPL as the best T20 leagues among all the leagues going around the world. He said that when he was disappointed after he surfaced with injury and missed the opportunity to play in the 2018 season. Fortunately, the left-arm spinner got the opportunity in the last edition and had the experience to play with Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja.
“Yeah, the IPL, I guess, is the pinnacle of all T20 tournaments and I was pretty excited when I was picked up in 2018. There are some world-class spinners in Chennai to talk to and play with – guys like Harbhajan Singh, who I’ve watched a lot of, Ravindra Jadeja and Imran Tahir as well,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Santner as saying.
“When I got injured the first year, I was pretty disappointed, but I was given the opportunity last time around to go and experience it. It’s an unbelievable tournament and definitely the best cricket going around in terms of T20 leagues,” he added.
Playing with MS Dhoni was awesome: Mitchell Santner
The Kiwi spinner also said that he gained a lot of experience after his stint in the Indian T20 tournament and playing under MS Dhoni.
“I’ve played against Dhoni a lot, so to share a dressing room with him and talk to him about how he goes about things was awesome. Even guys like Suresh Raina – you watched him from other teams you go with,” Santner said.
Mitchell Santner is also a regular player for New Zealand in white-ball cricket. He was the part of the disheartening end of the World Cup 2019 but his clutch spell in the semi-final win over India has guided the team to the finale.
As of now, he has played 22 Tests, 72 ODIs and 44 T20Is.