Wellington, Sept. 16 -- New Zealand will line up without its white-ball captain, Mitchell Santner, who has been ruled out of their upcoming T20I series against Australia. In Santner's absence, Michael Bracewell will lead a 14-man squad, which features Kyle Jamieson and Ben Sears but remains bereft of Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne due to injury.

Santner underwent abdominal surgery last month and remained hopeful about regaining his fitness in time to be available for the three fixtures in Australia during the build-up to next year's T20 World Cup. But he failed to recover in time for the series, which will be held on October 1, 3, and 4 in Mount Maunganui.

"Never nice to lose your skipper. But these things do happen. And Michael has alr...