Mitchell Santner joins Black Caps for first test against England at Lord’s

Sunday, 31 May 2026

Mitchell Santner appears set to make a surprise appearance in the first test team for New Zealand versus England at Lord’s.

Black Caps white-ball skipper Mitchell Santner looks like being a surprise inclusion for the first test against England.

The left-arm spinner and batter was expected to miss the first test starting at Lord’s on Thursday due to a shoulder injury suffered in the Indian Premier League.

New Zealand had hoped Santner would recover in time for the next two games of the three-test series, but was set to arrive in London on Sunday after a quicker than expected recovery.

That appears likely to see him named in the NZ XI, with allrounder Glenn Phillips still with his Gujarat Titans squad for the IPL final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Ahmedabad on Monday morning (NZ time).

Allrounder Dean Foxcroft, who loomed as the likely inclusion if Phillips was deemed not ready to play at Lord’s, will now return home.

The South Africa-born middle-order batter and offspinner made an excellent fist of ‘filling in’ for Glenn Phillips as the Black Caps won their one-off test against Ireland by an innings and 79 runs in Belfast.

Foxcroft fell short of a maiden test century when caught for 98 in NZ’s only innings, and wasn’t required to bowl as the seamers delivered all 108.2 overs in Ireland’s two turns at bat.

Without Matt Henry, Will O’Rouke and Kyle Jamieson, NZ’s pace attack was still too good for the home side’s batters at Stormont.

Resuming in their second innings follow-on at 65-2, still needing another 246 runs to make New Zealand bat again, Ireland were dismissed for 232.

Blair Tickner led the way in Ireland’s second innings with 5-76, while Nathan Smith ended the match with eight wickets to surely confirm his place in the side for the series-opener against England.

“He certainly set the tone with that new ball yesterday, but then [was] a threat around off stump for long periods of time,” Black Caps skipper Tom Latham said of Smith.

‘I've seen him do that for a long time in domestic cricket, but for him to come and do that on the international stages seemed to be a confidence boost for him.”

Former Black Caps skipper and current England coach Brendon McCullum and his players have been under the microscope since their Ashes series drubbing in Australia last summer.

“Hhe and his team, put simply, have to win back the trust of supporters who had become disillusioned with them in the winter,” former England captain Mike Atherton wrote in The Times this week.

In a media event, McCullum confirmed Jacob Bethell is expected to have recovered from an injured finger in time to bat at No.3 at Lord’s.

There will be a test debut for opener Emilio Gay, with Zak Crawley finally jettisoned from the side, while captain Ben Stokes is likely to slide one place down the batting order to No.7, with wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith coming in before him and after Joe Root and Harry Brook.

Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson and Ollie Robinson are expected to make up the pace attack with Stokes, while Shoaib Bashir is likely to be chosen as the spinner ahead of Rehan Ahmed, despite being passed over for part-timer Will Jacks for the Ashes.

One-off test, Belfast: New Zealand 490-8 dec beat Ireland 179 and 232 (Stephen Doheny 57, Lorcan Tucker 50, Mark Adair 44 not out; Blair Tickner 5-76) by an innings and 79 runs. Click here for full scorecard.