Mitchell Santner suffers grade three ACL shoulder injury

Mitchell Santner, New Zealand’s white-ball captain, is set to be on the sidelines for at least a month after New Zealand Cricket confirmed the extent of his shoulder injury. A media release on Friday revealed that the left-arm spinner has a grade three ACL shoulder injury, deeming him unavailable for the one-off Ireland Test, and the first Test against England.

Santner suffered the injury while fielding for Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League game against Chennai Super Kings on April 23. Attempting a catch, Santner hurt his shoulder and also bumped his head on the ground unfortunately, with the franchise bringing in Shardul Thakur as his concussion replacement. He was later seen with an ice-pack on his shoulder in the dressing room.

The all-rounder flew back home and was replaced by Keshav Maharaj, another left-arm spinner, at Mumbai Indians. Before the season, Maharaj had played a total of two IPL games, and joined the five-time champions for a fee of INR 75 lakh.