Mitchell Santner's Impressive Performance in the World Cup Opener against England

It's incredibly difficult for a spinner to complete even one boundary or maximum against a potent batting lineup like England. Mitchell Santner successfully accomplished this in the World Cup opener against Jos Buttler and company, and that too on a fantastic Ahmedabad track.

It played a significant role in New Zealand's crushing nine-wicket victory over the defending champions and sent a clear message to their rivals that they would not be intimidated by the left-arm spinner.

Santner emerged as the player with the most wickets (11 wickets) in this World Cup thus far with his 2/37 against England. Santner then picked up nine wickets in the following three games, all of which New Zealand won easily. Yes, he bowled against countries with poor rankings after England (the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan), but one can't just ignore it.

Take Santner's competitively impressive economy rate of 4.43 out of the equation.

These are hardly the simplest conditions to bowl in coming from a nation without a long tradition of spin bowling. Santner is not a bowler with a large repertoire of variations, either. In reality, that elevates his endeavor to a higher level of merit.

Monty Panesar, a former left-arm spinner for England, told The Telegraph from New Delhi that Santner has really improved as a bowler as a result of his time with the Chennai Super Kings.

He extracts more turn than the other spinners and gets the ball to bite while it also skids on with the arm, according to Panesar. He also comes wide off the crease.

India problem

Santner's hardest test will undoubtedly be the match against India on Sunday in Dharamsala, especially with the hosts' skipper Rohit Sharma and No. 3 Virat Kohli playing exceptionally well.

Santner's work will be made more difficult by the fact that, in contrast to the Chennai pitch he is already quite familiar with, the surface in Dharamsala is anticipated to favor batters far more.

Santner shouldn't be surprised, but Indian batsmen will come at him hard, in Panesar's opinion. He'll succeed if he stays with his routine and concentrates on getting the ball to bite and skid.

Of course, India would prefer that he bowl with a flatter trajectory, but it's up to him to continue focusing on giving the ball flight and causing it to dip, coming wide off the crease. He needs to never stop having faith in himself.

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