Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand white-ball captain, is set to be out of action for "at least a month" after scans revealed a "grade three ACL shoulder injury".
Santner, 34, returned home to New Zealand earlier this week from IPL 2026, where he was part of Mumbai Indians (MI) and, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said, "saw a specialist this morning [Friday] who confirmed a rest and rehabilitation period of at least one month".
Santner injured his left shoulder while fielding for MI in their match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 23. It was his fourth appearance for MI after he joined the squad late, having earlier requested the team management for "slightly extended time [off] for personal reasons" at the end of the T20 World Cup. Santner bowled his full quota of overs against CSK, returning 1 for 44, but didn't come out to bat, with Shardul Thakur replacing him.
"The diagnosis means Santner is unavailable for the one-off Test against Ireland [in late May] and the first Test against England [at Lord's in early June], with his availability for the second and third Tests to be evaluated at a later date," NZC said. The squad for the Ireland and England Test series will be named "in the coming days".
Santner, because of his IPL commitments, skipped the ongoing white-ball tour of Bangladesh.
Santner was acquired by MI for INR 2 crore ahead of IPL 2025 and was retained for this season. He played 13 games in IPL 2025, taking ten wickets at an economy rate of 7.92. More recently, he led New Zealand to the final of the T20 World Cup, which they lost to India, scoring 120 runs in the tournament, striking at 142.85, and picked up two wickets with his left-arm spin. For MI, Santner scored 26 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 136.84 and picked up five wickets at an economy rate of 8.92.
Even if Santner misses the four Test matches in May-June, he should be expected to be back leading New Zealand in the ODI and T20I series in the West Indies in July.