Sophie Devine to Relinquish New Zealand's Captaincy: New Zealand's star all-rounder Sophie Devine will step down from the captaincy of the national T20 team after the T20 World Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates in October. Devine made her international debut in 2006 and since then she has been an integral part of the New Zealand women's cricket team.

So far Devine has scored 3268 runs in 135 T20 international matches. Sophie Devine has so far led the team in 56 matches in T20 international cricket. Under his captaincy, the New Zealand team has won 25 matches while facing defeat in 28 matches.

The experienced all-rounder said the decision to relinquish the T20I captaincy was to help her balance her workload in the coming years.

“I’m very proud to have had the privilege to captain the White Ferns in both formats,” Devine said.

“With captaincy comes an additional workload that, while I’ve enjoyed taking on, can also be challenging at times.

“Stepping away from the T20 captaincy will take a bit off my plate so I can focus more of my energy on my playing role and nurturing the future leaders.”

New Zealand women's team coach Ben Sawyer said that he fully supports Devine's decision. She has been a very fearless captain. She is the most experienced player of the team. It was not easy for Sophie to take this decision, but I fully support her decision.

However Sophie Devine will still captain New Zealand in 50-over cricket and plans to be a part of next year's ICC Women's Cricket World Cup campaign in India.

“I’m not ready to give up ODI captaincy just yet,” she said.

“But I won’t be around forever, so I think stepping away from captaining one format at a time gives the next leaders time to find their feet.”

Sophie Devine's career has been quite brilliant. Sophie has played 147 ODI matches for New Zealand so far. In which 3860 runs have been scored from his bat. Talking about bowling, he has taken 111 wickets so far. Talking about T20 cricket, he has taken 3268 runs with the bat and 117 wickets with the bowling.

New Zealand will announce their 15-player squad for the Women's T20 World Cup on September 10 and a decision on Devine's long-term replacement as T20I captain will be made in due course.