Daryl Mitchell is on an ODI hot streak, and you probably haven't noticed

A decade ago, Mitchell Santner joked to Daryl Mitchellthat his namesake, the captain of Worcestershire, was the better Daryl Mitchell. The other Daryl Mitchell finished as a domestic giant in 2021 with nearly 14,000 first-class runs.

The same year, the Hamilton-born Mitchell started his ODI career, and has been prolific since. In fact, it’s one of the hottest batting streaks in the format that hasn’t made the noise that it should have.

His ODI career – in numbers so far

Mitchell is currently ranked third in the ICC’s ODI batting rankings , having slipped a place last week to accommodate Virat Kohli. Rachin Ravindra is the only other New Zealand batter in the top-30.

Put a 2,000 run cut-off, and Mitchell’s ODI average – 53.82 – is the third-best ever, behind Kohli (58.6) and Shubman Gill (56.32). An immediate assumption would attribute it to a high number of not-outs: Mitchell has batted everywhere from Nos. 3-7, and started with three not-outs in his first three ODI innings.

But Mitchell has only seven not-outs from 52 innings, comparable to Gill, an opener (eight in 59).

Since his unbeaten 100 against Bangladesh in just his second ODI innings, Mitchell has hit six more hundreds. That already places him at seven on New Zealand’s all-time charts. One more, and he will have as many as Tom Latham and Stephen Fleming.

The T20I and Test base

ODIs are often considered the in-between format, where batters can borrow their best traits from the other two. Mitchell entered the national scene with the reputation of being one of the cleanest strikers in their domestic circuit. His T20I call-up in 2019 came on the back of a stunning Super Smash season: he was the third highest run-getter, striking at 139 and hitting the most sixes (19 in 10 innings) in the competition.

Later that year, he also made his Test debut, slotting in at No.7 and batting over four hours for his 73 against England. Against the same opponents in 2022, he almost doubled that time spent for his 190 in Nottingham.

Mitchell’s greatest ODI hits intertwine the best of those two worlds.

Looking at other New Zealand batters since his debut, no one has scored more runs. In the same positions (3-7), Mitchell strikes slower (95) than the likes of Mark Chapman (110), Michael Bracewell (108) and Glenn Philips (101), who invariably bat around him.

What makes Mitchell so good in ODIs?

The one obvious trait that stands out is his all-condition brilliance: he averages 65 at home and 53.8 in away games. In fact, he might be slightly better outside New Zealand: five of his seven hundreds have come on overseas shores – two in Pakistan, one in England and another two in India.

For any New Zealand player who has batted at least twice, Mitchell’s ODI average in Asia (51.00) is the best ever. Only Nathan Astle (6) has hit more hundreds.

In November, he even surpassed Rohit Sharma to be the top-ranked ODI batter in the world, the first New Zealand to do so since Glenn Turner in 1979.

Excellence at the World Cup

Mitchell’s only ODI World Cup so far (2023) saw him put on a fine display of run-making in the subcontinent. Fifth on the run-charts, he hit two centuries against finalists India across three weeks, against arguably the best attack of the competition. The second one, in the semi-final, gave the hosts a real scare with a target of 398 seeming like a real possibility at one point (he hit seven sixes).

That clutch ability has already been shown in the T20 World Cups as well. In 2021, his 72* off 47 downed England on a dew-less Abu Dhabi pitch in the semi-final. A year later, he top-scored with 53* off 35 against Pakistan in another semi-final, but it wasn’t enough. In the first, he was opening. In the second, he was down at five.

Consistency is his game

Mitchell is yet to be dismissed for a duck in ODIs. In both 2023 and 2025, he averaged almost similar (New Zealand played just three ODIs in 2024, with Mitchell missing those).

For those who feel he’s a grafter – despite losing out on that year, Mitchell has hit the third-most sixes (59) since the start of 2023. He’s scored the sixth-most runs, the top five all from Asia.

In terms of centuries (6), he is tied third with Quinton de Kock, Shai Hope and Pathum Nissanka.

Mitchell is extremely strong in the V, and enjoys clubbing the ball, golf style, in the band between long-on and deep mid-wicket. He usually extends it to anything full on the stumps or off-stump too, drilling it down the ground with a flat bat.

An argument is that he batted slightly slower on occasion last year, striking at 86, with his innings in the Champions Trophy final against India (63 off 101) coming under scrutiny. Against the same opponents, he scored 17 off 35 earlier in Dubai in the tournament.

However, Mitchell also has the ability to accelerate when set. Between overs 11-40, his strike rate hovers around 90, but explodes to 148 between 41-50 overs.

Comparing his progression to the other top-ranked ODI batters, he accelerates quite well as his innings gets longer.

Mitchell’s ODI innings progressions compared to other batters

Average/strike-rate