I may have played my last game for NZ: Munro after being ignored from World T20 squad

New Zealand opener and one of the most sought after T20 players across leagues in the world, Colin Munro was fitted to have missed out on a place on the Kiwi squad for the T20 World Cup 2021. The squad was announced late night Monday, 09 August.

"Extremely gutted to miss out on this, was definitely a goal of mine that I wanted to tick off," Munro wrote in an Instagram story. "Looks like I may [sic] have played my last game for [the Blackcaps] not by choice,” he added.

Since debuting for Blackcaps in 2012, the South Africa-born has so far played 65 T20Is scoring 1724 runs at an average of 31.34 and with a strike rate of 156.44. His last match for New Zealand came way back in February 2020 against India. Since then he also lost his central contract and with the emergence of players like Devon Conway, Tim Siefert and Genn Philipps, his place in the squad looked in jeopardy.

However, in the period that he could not represent New Zealand the 34-year old averaged 37.94 with a strike rate of 140.21 in various T20 leagues. Coach Gary Stead confirmed that Munro made himself unavailable for Bangladesh and Pakistan tours for which squads were also announced.

"He wasn't available for any other tours, and we talked through that decision. In the end, we've had a lot of success with guys in our squad in the last six months. We know Colin is a fine player - and still is - but unfortunately, we [would be] taking the 15 selected plus Adam Milne,” Stead, who would not be coaching the teams touring Bangladesh and Pakistan, but would only be available for T20 World Cup, said.

"I'm pleased he's frustrated. When you have a lot of quality players around, you can't fit everyone into 15 players. It's a call we've had to make. I've spoken to Colin about a week ago and he's clear on where he sits,” Stead added further.

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Players free to take call on participation in IPL 2021 remainder: Cricket Australia

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BCCI invites applications for head of cricket at National Cricket Academy

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