Mitchell Santner has taken 452 wickets and scored 4,969 runs across Tests, ODIs and T20 cricket. Split those numbers by format and a clear pattern appears: 236 T20 wickets, 136 ODI wickets and 80 Test wickets, with runs in every format and a Test hundred among them. He is one of the few left-arm spinners of his era whose batting is a genuine part of the selection case rather than a bonus.
This feature breaks down that record format by format, using the CricMind ball-by-ball archive. His full profile is on the Mitchell Santner player page.
Mitchell Santner career stats by format
| Format | Mat | Inns | Runs | Avg | SR | HS | 50s | 100s | Wkts | Bowl Avg | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 33 | 46 | 1,089 | 24.75 | 47.0 | 126 | 4 | 1 | 80 | 33.95 | 2.86 |
| ODI | 124 | 94 | 1,641 | 26.90 | 92.0 | 67 | 3 | 0 | 136 | 35.52 | 4.75 |
| T20 | 228 | 158 | 2,239 | 23.57 | 130.6 | 77 | 6 | 0 | 236 | 24.09 | 7.22 |
| Total | 385 | 298 | 4,969 | — | — | 126 | 13 | 1 | 452 | — | — |
The T20 row covers both T20 internationals and franchise cricket. It is by far the largest slice of the career: 228 of his 385 matches and more than half of his wickets.
The standing: a left-arm spinner who bats
Santner's value has always rested on two things happening in the same player. He bowls a full quota in white-ball cricket — he has bowled in 226 of 228 T20 matches and 122 of 124 ODIs — and he bats in the lower-middle order with enough intent to change a total.
Across all three formats he has bowled 16,524 balls, more than 2,750 overs. That is the workload of a frontline spinner, not a part-timer. At the same time, 4,969 runs and 13 scores of fifty or more mean he has spent long stretches of his career as one of the most dependable number-seven or number-eight batters in his side.
T20: the format that defines him
T20 cricket is where Santner's record is strongest.
- 236 wickets at 24.09
- Economy: 7.22 runs per over across 4,727 balls
- Strike rate: a wicket roughly every 20 balls
- Batting: 2,239 runs at a strike rate of 130.6, highest score 77
An economy of 7.22 over nearly 790 overs is the key number. Finger spinners in T20 cricket are usually used to slow the game down in the middle overs, and Santner's figures show he has done that consistently while still taking a wicket every three overs or so.
The batting adds to it. He has hit 179 fours and 91 sixes in 1,714 balls faced, and he has finished 63 innings not out — a sign of how often he has been batting at the end of an innings, when every ball needs to be scored from.
His T20 career has taken in New Zealand, the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, Northern Superchargers and Trent Rockets in The Hundred, Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League, and Worcestershire and Surrey in county cricket.
ODIs: control over 1,000 overs
In ODI cricket Santner has played 124 matches and taken 136 wickets at 35.52, with an economy of 4.75. He has bowled 6,100 balls — just over 1,016 overs — which works out to around 8.3 overs per innings bowled. In other words, he has usually bowled most or all of his ten.
The economy is the headline. Conceding under five an over across more than a thousand ODI overs is the record of a bowler captains trust to bowl through the middle of an innings without leaking runs.
With the bat he has scored 1,641 ODI runs at 26.90, the highest average of his three formats, at a strike rate of 92.0. He has hit 116 fours and 53 sixes, and his top score is 67.
Tests: the hundred and the long spells
Santner's Test record is the smallest sample but contains his biggest single innings: 126, his only international-format hundred in the database, alongside four fifties. He has scored 1,089 Test runs at 24.75 with a strike rate of 47.0 — a far more patient method than his white-ball batting.
With the ball he has 80 Test wickets at 33.95 and an economy of just 2.86. He has bowled 5,697 balls in Tests, a wicket roughly every 71 balls, which reflects the different job a spinner does in the longest format: holding an end and building pressure over long spells.
What the numbers show
| Format | Balls bowled | Balls per wicket | Runs per wicket | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 5,697 | 71.2 | 33.95 | 2.86 |
| ODI | 6,100 | 44.9 | 35.52 | 4.75 |
| T20 | 4,727 | 20.0 | 24.09 | 7.22 |
Read across the table and Santner's career has a clear shape. The shorter the format, the better his bowling average: 24.09 in T20 cricket against roughly 34–36 in the longer forms. That is unusual — most spinners find wickets cheaper in Tests — and it marks him as a bowler whose accuracy and changes of pace are most dangerous when batters are forced to attack him.
His batting averages, by contrast, are remarkably flat: 24.75, 26.90 and 23.57. Whatever the format, he has delivered roughly the same contribution with the bat, adjusted only in tempo.
For how numbers like these compare with the game's greats, see the all-time cricket records. His IPL squad profile is on the Mitchell Santner IPL page.
FAQ
How many international and T20 wickets has Mitchell Santner taken?
Across the three formats in the CricMind database he has 452 wickets: 80 in Tests, 136 in ODIs and 236 in T20 cricket (T20 internationals and franchise leagues combined).
What is Mitchell Santner's highest score?
His highest score is 126 in Test cricket. His best in ODIs is 67 and in T20 cricket 77.
What is Mitchell Santner's T20 economy rate?
He concedes 7.22 runs per over in T20 cricket across 4,727 balls, taking a wicket roughly every 20 balls at an average of 24.09.
Which teams has Mitchell Santner played for?
New Zealand internationally, plus Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, Northern Superchargers and Trent Rockets in The Hundred, Barbados Tridents in the CPL, and Worcestershire and Surrey in English county cricket.