Spinner Mitchell Santner has officially been named as the new white-ball skipper of New Zealand after an announcement was made on Wednesday (Dec 18).

Santner, who previously served in the standby role, will take over as the full-time skipper during the side's upcoming home series against Sri Lanka at the end of the year.

Santner's first big test will be the Champions Trophy 2025 which begins in February.

Santner takes over as the new white-ball skipper

"It's obviously a huge honour and a privilege to be asked," Santner said. "When you're a young kid the dream was always to play for New Zealand but to have the opportunity to officially lead my country in two formats is special.

"It's a new challenge and I'm excited to get stuck into the important period of white ball cricket that we have ahead of us."

Kane Williamson stepped down from his captaincy role in June, paving the way for Tim Southee and then Tom Latham to take over as the captains in Test format.

However, with Santner serving on standby role in ODIs and T20Is, he was the leading candidate to take over the side.

Head coach Gary Speed said New Zealand cricket management wanted to manage the workload of players going forward, which was one of the reasons for Latham to be overlooked for the role.

Latham is currently the captain of the Test side and led the Kiwis to an unprecedented series win against India in November.

New Zealand will be one of the favouites to win the Champions Trophy 2025 as Santner looks to make an instant impact.

The BlackCaps have an impressive record in the ICC tournaments, having won the World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021 while losing the T20 World Cup final the same year.

New Zealand also reached the 2023 ODI World Cup semifinal before losing to India.