Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026 final between India and New Zealand, BlackCaps captain Mitchell Santner gave a cheeky reply to a media question that went viral on social media. When asked about winning in front of a packed Narendra Modi Stadium and 1.4 billion Indian fans, Santner echoed sentiments similar to those of Australia captain Pat Cummins, who had talked about silencing the Indian crowd during the ODI World Cup 2023 final.
The skipper acknowledged that they might not arrive at the final as favourites but reminded that T20 cricket is a game of moments and if they manage to win the clutch situations, things could turn in their favour.
“It’s obviously a challenge. Everyone knows we’re probably not the favourite, but we don’t mind, we know we can if we do our little things well and put in a strong team performance, you know, put us in a pretty good position to hopefully lift the trophy. But yeah, one might break a few hearts to lift the trophy for once,” said Mitchell Santner at the press conference.
“I think that there are a lot of variables in T20 cricket, and it is fickle at times. And we’ve seen throughout the whole World Cup that, you know, a lot of teams are on similar pages, and it comes down to, you know, some little moments in every game that change the outcome,” he added.
Lot of pressure on India to win: Santner
The New Zealand captain was also clever in putting the pressure on India ahead of the marquee clash. He reminded that the playing at home, the Suryakumar Yadav-led side can’t afford to commit any mistake and hope they capitalise on that.
“So I think for us, it’s about taking confidence in the fact that if we go about our business the same way, we can upset another big team. And I think there’s obviously a lot of pressure on them to win, to win this World Cup at home. I mean, it would be, like I said, we don’t want to be pretty cool for you know to win a home. Home World Cup, so I think that comes with a lot of added pressure as well so if we can go out there and try and put, I guess, the added pressure on them, let’s see,” Santner said.
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