In Mitchell Santner, New Zealand cricket found a strong, resembling replacement for one of their veterans and the most successful bowler in ODIs, Daniel Vettori. This was not just because Santner too bowled left-arm orthodox but mainly because he carried the same potential to perform and excel when he joined the team that Vettori had displayed in his younger days.

He toured England in 2015 but did not get to feature in the Tests, even though he was part of the squad for the same. He did, however, make the cut in the ODIs and the lone T20I that followed. Even though he is a bowling all-rounder, a glimpse of his batting capabilities was seen in the 4th ODI, where he smacked 44 off just 19 balls, coming in at No. 7.

He had a decent T20I debut in the same tour, picking up 2/28 in his four overs, and was the best bowler for the Kiwis in that lone T20I. Santner shone in the 2016 T20 World Cup for New Zealand, picking up 11 wickets in the tournament, including a remarkable 4/11 against India in the very first game, where he and Ish Sodhi ran riot to bowl out India for just 79. But besides this, he had a rather lacklustre 2016-17 season.

Santner was picked to play for Chennai in the 2018 Indian Premier League but missed the season owing to an injury. In the 2019 edition, Santner played 4 matches and managed to pick up 4 wickets at a decent economy rate. The next season, he was retained by the franchise, but he played just 2 matches.

Santner also featured in all the games for the Black Caps in the 2019 World Cup. His most notable performance in the tournament came against India in the semi-final with figures of 2/34, wherein he picked the important wickets of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya and was the second-best bowler in the game, behind Matt Henry’s 3 wickets.

Over the years, he was given leadership opportunities in white-ball cricket when senior players were rested as part of New Zealand’s long-term planning to prepare for the future. Despite his talents with both bat and ball, Santner’s opportunities in the IPL remained limited while playing for Chennai.

At the 2023 ODI World Cup, Santner impressed with his performances and finished as New Zealand’s highest wicket-taker at the tournament. In 2024, New Zealand’s cricketing hierarchy decided Santner was ready to take on more responsibility. When Kane Williamson stepped down from the white-ball captaincy after the T20 World Cup and declined the central contract, the talented all-rounder was handed the full-time leadership of both the ODI and T20I formats.

Santner’s first assignment as captain came in Sri Lanka, where the Kiwis lost the ODI series. However, when Sri Lanka visited New Zealand later that year, Santner's leadership saw his team win both the ODI and T20I series. As part of their preparations for the Champions Trophy, New Zealand participated in a tri-series against South Africa and Pakistan where the Kiwis won the series without losing a game.