Mitchell Santner goes Pat Cummins' way, says he "doesn't mind breaking a few hearts" to lift trophy in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner is confident of his team beating India in the T20 World Cup 2026 Final when the two teams take centre stage in a battle for the silverware on Sunday, March 08 here. The gigantic setting of the Narendra Modi Stadium will be the host to this epic contest, which is also the ground that has a haunting memory in the minds of the Indian fans.

For the unversed, India lost the ODI World Cup 2023 Final here against the Pat Cummins-led Australian team, and Santner is hoping to replicate the same. Ahead of the 2023 finale, Cummins had made his intentions clear to silence the crowd in Ahmedabad and walked the talk. The Black Caps captain wants his bunch of men to unfold similar scenes at the gigantic venue.

“It’s obviously a challenge [playing home team in a final]. Everyone knows we’re probably not the favourite, but we don’t mind; we know we can win, if we do our little things well and put in a strong team performance, put ourselves in a pretty good position to hopefully lift the trophy. And I don't mind breaking a few hearts to lift the trophy for once,” Santner said.

“I think that there are a lot of variables in T20 cricket, and it is fickle at times. And we’ve seen throughout the whole T20 World Cup that, you know, a lot of teams are on similar pages, and it comes down to, you know, some little moments in every game that change the outcome,” the all-rounder added. 

More pressure on India to win World Cup at home: Santner

In a historic setting, the Indians have become the first side to be entering a T20 World Cup final as defending champions. As a result, there has been a lot of buzz around Suryakumar Yadav's men, with them obviously having the biggest spotlight ahead of the big evening in Motera. Santner wants the Kiwis to add pressure on them by putting up a show on Sunday.

“For us, it is about being confident about the fact that if we continue our business in the same way, we can upset another big team. There's a lot of preesure on them to win this World Cup at home. [India are playing] A home World Cup, so that comes with a lot of pressure, and we'll try to go out there and try putting added pressure on them," Santner added.

The game will start from 7:00 PM onwards (Indian Standard Time).