Suzie Bates will bring the curtain down on one of the most decorated careers in women’s cricket after the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, with the New Zealand great confirming that the global tournament will be her final international assignment.
Bates leaves the game as one of the defining figures of the modern era, having represented New Zealand since making her debut against India in Lincoln in 2006. Across two decades, she has combined longevity, consistency and match-winning brilliance to build a resume few can match, excelling as a batter, useful medium-pacer, leader and elite fielder.
She is set to retire as New Zealand Women’s highest run-scorer across formats and currently stands as the leading run-scorer in Women’s T20 Internationals (T20Is) with 4717 runs in 181 matches at an average of 28.93 and strike rate of 108.56. Her T20I record includes one century, 28 fifties, 521 fours and 34 sixes, underlining her sustained dominance at the top of the order.
In ODIs, Bates has been equally prolific, scoring 5964 runs in 181 matches at an average of 38.23, including 13 centuries and 37 half-centuries. Only Meg Lanning (15) and Smriti Mandhana (14) have more women’s ODI centuries than Bates, highlighting the company she keeps among the format’s elite.
Her highest ODI score of 168 against Pakistan in the 2009 World Cup remains one of the most explosive innings of its time. Struck from just 105 balls, it featured 19 fours and six sixes and announced Bates as a global star. She later returned to torment Pakistan again in 2022, scoring 126 in Christchurch, an innings that also made her the first New Zealand batter to pass 5,000 women’s ODI runs.
Bates’ influence was never limited to batting alone. With the ball, she claimed 83 ODI wickets and 62 T20I wickets, with best figures of 4/7 in ODIs and 4/26 in T20Is. Early in her career especially, her seam bowling offered New Zealand vital balance, making her one of the game’s genuine all-round assets.
She also captained New Zealand from 2011 to 2018, leading the side through a key transitional phase. Individually, 2013 proved one of her finest years when she topped the run charts at the Women’s World Cup in India with 407 runs at 67.83, including a century and three fifties. In 2016, she was recognised globally after being named ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year and ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year.
Her crowning team achievement arrived at the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, where New Zealand lifted the title for the first time. Bates finished as the equal leading run-scorer for the White Ferns, playing another major role on the biggest stage. Among her most memorable T20I knocks was the unbeaten 124 off 66 balls against South Africa in Taunton in 2018, when she broke the record for most runs in women’s T20Is.
Now 20 years after her debut, Bates will have one final opportunity to sign off in style as New Zealand attempt to defend their T20 World Cup crown. Drawn in Group B alongside hosts England, Ireland, Scotland, Sri Lanka and West Indies, the White Ferns will hope their most experienced star can help deliver one more memorable campaign. Whenever the final innings comes, Bates will depart as a trailblazer, record-holder and one of New Zealand cricket’s greatest ever players.
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