Daryl Mitchell

Daryl Mitchell was called into New Zealand's Test team in late 2019 as a replacement for the injured Colin de Grandhomme. He impressed, making an assured 73 against England in his first innings and bowling with good control on a sluggish surface at his home ground, Hamilton.

Mitchell, the son of former New Zealand rugby union player and coach John Mitchell, scored his first Test hundred at the start of 2021, in an innings win over Pakistan in Christchurch, and his first ODI century that March. In T20Is, when promoted to open at the 2021 T20 World Cup, he played a key role in New Zealand's run to the final, with an unbeaten 72 against England in the semi-final. Though New Zealand had a poor tour of England in 2022, losing all three Tests, Mitchell came out of the summer glowing, with two fifties and three hundreds, including a massive one at Trent Bridge. And he made a quick fifty against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup semi-final that year, though in a losing cause.

Mitchell made his first-class debut at the end of the 2011-12 season and averaged 54.53 the following year. Though primarily a middle-order batter, his seam bowling became a useful asset over the years. He won a place in a New Zealand A squad to tour India and Sri Lanka, and while he found life tougher there, he responded with centuries in successive innings the following domestic season. An unbeaten 170 against Canterbury shortly before the England series in 2019 ensured he was in the frame for the debut that followed.

Mitchell thrived in white-ball cricket in 2023. He made back-to-back ODI hundreds against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in April, and another against England in Cardiff ahead of the World Cup. In that tournament, in India, he shone with 552 runs at 69, just behind team-mate Rachin Ravindra on the run-scorers' table, helping New Zealand make their way to yet another ICC semi-final. Drafted into the IPL for Chennai Super Kings the following year, he was among the team's top three run-scorers in a middling season, outshining Ravindra, who opened.