Santner dropped as Black Caps pick squad for WTC final

The World Test Championship final will be broadcast live in Australia on Fox Cricket & Kayo Sports from 7pm AEST on Friday June 18

New Zealand have dropped spinner Mitchell Santner for this week's World Test Championship final against India, with left-armer Ajaz Patel set to play in Southampton after his impressive display against England at Edgbaston.

The Black Caps have unveiled their final 15-man squad for the inaugural WTC final, with skipper Kane Williamson and gloveman BJ Watling both expected to play having missed the Edgbaston Test last week.

The return of the senior duo is expected to see Will Young, who made 82 at Edgbaston, and Tom Blundell drop out of the side.

Allrounder Colin de Grandhomme has also returned after missing the Edgbaston Test, taking the place of fellow allrounder, Daryl Mitchell.

Santner was picked for the first Test against England at Lord's but was below his best due to a finger injury. He was replaced in Birmingham by Patel, another left-arm finger spinner who impressed in taking four wickets for the match.

And Patel, 32, showed enough to unseat Santner for the historic match on England's south coast.

"It's a hard message to give at times," NZ coach Gary Stead said in announcing Santner, Mitchell, Doug Bracewell, Jacob Duffy and Rachin Ravindra had dropped out of their initial 20-man squad.

"Often those guys have done nothing wrong and it's around the balance we want in the team.

"But Mitch took it as I expected he would. He knows he's a key component of our white-ball teams and there's certainly a lot of white-ball cricket coming up that he can go home and prepare for as well.

"We felt we needed to have who we thought was our best spinner in terms of the guy who can take wickets for us and that's why Ajaz got that nod." 

The Kiwis still have a selection headache to wade through after they secured a historic series win over England despite missing several first-choice players.

Paceman Matt Henry is set to be axed for the WTC final despite being named player-of-the-match at Edgbaston, with Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner all at Stead's disposal.

The bowling depth could also spell bad news for de Grandhomme, who normally bats at No.7 and offers a fifth bowling option with his medium pace. However, the Black Caps could opt for a four-man pace attack alongside Patel, a move that would weaken the lower order batting and see Jamieson bat at No.7.

But if the Kiwis decide to boost their batting and stick with de Grandhomme, that would either mean dropping their only spin option (Patel) or one of their four star seamers.

"I've got a lot of faith in Kyle," Stead said.

"He hasn't yet done it (bat at No.7) at Test level but he's developing nicely. In time, it's ultimately where we see Kyle could hopefully end up or certainly push his boundaries to get up at that level because that would then allow us to look at the team slightly differently in terms of the dynamic of the group.

"There's always a bit of a puzzle whether you go in with what you feel is slightly batting heavy or bowling heavy. That's the advantage of having an allrounder in that you can balance up the group a little bit more and that's what we are aiming to do when we select our teams."

India are yet to announce their trimmed down squad for the final, which begins at the Ageas Bowl on Friday, with their touring party to also face England in a five-Test series.

The WTC final is the culmination of two years of Test cricket in the new-look format, with a total of 24 series played across the world between nine countries.

Australia narrowly missed out on a spot in the final after their tours of Bangladesh and South Africa were postponed due to the pandemic, while a loss of points for an over rate penalty last summer also proved costly.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Devon Conway, Colin de Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Will Young

India extended squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha

The World Test Championship final will be broadcast live in Australia on Fox Cricket & Kayo Sports from 7pm AEST on Friday June 18