Sophie Devine and Lea Tahuhu have announced this year’s T20 World Cup will be their last appearances for the White Ferns
New Zealand great Sophie Devine and Lea Tahuhu have joined teammate Suzie Bates in announcing their retirements from international cricket following this year’s T20 World Cup in England.
The defending champions revealed their 15-player squad for the tournament on Wednesday with superstar allrounder Melie Kerr to lead the side, which will be seeking back-to-back titles after beating South Africa to win the 2024 edition in the United Arab Emirates.
New Zealand 2026 T20 World Cup squad: Melie Kerr (c), Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Flora Devonshire, Izzy Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Nensi Patel, Georgia Plimmer, Izzy Sharp, Lea Tahuhu
Devine, who led the side to glory in the previous T20 World Cup and has since relinquished the White Ferns captaincy to Kerr, will bring to an end a decorated 20-year New Zealand career after also farewelling 50-over internationals following last year’s ODI World Cup in India.
The 36-year-old allrounder (7,866 runs in 310 matches) is behind only Bates (10,681 runs in 362 matches) as the country’s most-capped women’s cricketer and run-scorer in all formats, with Devine set to finish her career as New Zealand’s most prolific bowler in T20Is, currently 24 ahead of Kerr (104) and Tahuhu (98).
Right-arm seamer Tahuhu made her international debut against Australia in 2011 and is the White Ferns second-highest ODI wicket-taker with 125 scalps having recently been surpassed by Kerr (126), with Devine third on 111.
“There’s no better way I could’ve imagined finishing my career than alongside ‘Soph’ and ‘Suz’, two teammates I’ve shared incredible years and countless memories with,” Tahuhu said in a post to the White Ferns Instagram page.
Devine, who represented New Zealand in field hockey before focusing on cricket, also captained her country in 56 ODIs and 64 T20 internationals, again behind only Bates (79 ODIs and 72 T20Is) on both lists.
“To have our three most senior players all finishing their careers at the same tournament is a rare and special occasion,” New Zealand coach Ben Sawyer said.
“All three have had distinguished careers in their own right and given so much to this team and the game in general.
“There will be a time at the end of the tournament to further acknowledge and celebrate the trio, and I know at present they’re very focused on performing well in their final mission with the team.”
Devine, who has captained Perth Scorchers for the past six seasons and was named in the WBBL Team of the Decade, will continue to play T20 franchise cricket having recently been bought by Welsh Fire for a bumper £210,000 (A$395,000) in the Hundred auction – the joint-highest earner alongside Australia’s Beth Mooney.
Devine (4,195) is the WBBL’s third-highest run-scorer of all-time behind Mooney (5,600) and Ellyse Perry (5,101), but remains unsigned for next season, with a league-wide contracting embargo currently in place.
Devine made her White Ferns 20-over debut against Australia in 2006 and is one of only two women to complete the double of scoring 3000 runs and taking 100 wickets in T20 internationals, along with West Indian Hayley Matthews.
She will be hoping to add to her 3,587 runs, which includes a career-best of 105 against South Africa at Wellington in 2020, and 128 wickets to help New Zealand lift the trophy again at Lord’s in July.
Devine and Bates have played in every T20 World Cup since its inauguration in 2009 with this year’s tournament to be their 10th and final appearances.
Meanwhile, off-spinning allrounder Nensi Patel and batter Izzy Sharp have earned their maiden World Cup call-ups for New Zealand, with left-arm seamer Bree Illing, wicketkeeper-batter Polly Inglis and left-arm spinner Flora Devonshire in line to make their T20 tournament debuts having all featured in the squad at last year’s ODI World Cup.
Captain Kerr was named player of the tournament at the last T20 World Cup for her record 15 wickets.
“I believe we’ve landed on a well-balanced squad that features a mix of experience and exciting young talent,” Sawyer said.
“We’ve worked really hard over the past 12 months to develop our batting depth in particular, which we’ve seen bear fruit in our recent home series against South Africa and Zimbabwe.”
New Zealand will play England in three-match ODI and T20I series respectively next month ahead of the T20 World Cup, as well as two warm-up games against Bangladesh and South Africa before launching their title defence against West Indies in Hampshire on June 13.
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
