ESPNCricinfo
A "gutted" Colin Munro believes he has played his last international cricket after being left out of New Zealand'ss T20 World Cup squad.
"Extremely gutted to miss out on this, was definitely a goal of mine that I wanted to tick off," Munro posted on his Instagram Stories when the squad was named. "Looks like I my [sic] have played my last game for [the Blackcaps] not by choice."
Munro, who has 1724 T20I runs at 31.34 with a strike-rate of 156.44, last played for New Zealand in February 2020 and lost his central contract later that year. He has remained a consistent performer in leagues around the world with strong returns in the PSL, CPL, BBL and currently the Hundred. Overall in that period he has averaged 37.94 with a strike-rate of 140.21.
However, Munro made himself unavailable for either of New Zealand's pre-World Cup series in Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the emergence of Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips and Tim Seifert - plus the versatility of Mark Chapman - has left no room in the batting order.
"Colin's still available, but for the World Cup only. He wasn't available for any other tours, and we talked through that decision," New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. "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.
"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."
