Full-strength Pakistan face truncated NZ today

LAHORE: Pakistan will face New Zealand for the first time at home soil in a T20 International, which will be the first of a five-match series to be played here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday night.

New Zealand landed in Pakistan just the other day to play a series of 10 white-ball matches, five of which are ODIs. Rawalpindi and Karachi are the other venues of the matches.

Pakistan will be entering into the series with a full-strength team and will be desperate to start it on a winning note, having been bashed by Afghanistan 2-1 in the UAE last month. Pakistan rested many senior players for that series.

Apart from regular captain Babar Azam, back in the team are Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi. This will be Shaheen’s first series after recovering from a knee injury that kept him away from international cricket for nearly a year.

So with the return of seniors who are joined by rookie players in batter Saim Ayub, bowlers Ihsanullah and Zaman Khan and the addition of Imad Wasim, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Haris, Pakistan are expected to do well.

New Zealand will be entering into their first T20I series in Pakistan after they managed to win the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka played in New Zealand. Both teams have played 29 matches in the history of the shortest version of the game in which Pakistan have edged them out on 18 occasions. The Kiwis won 11 times. Since 2017, Pakistan have won two series out of three played against New Zealand.

New Zealand can be considered as underdogs with as their senior players are currently participating in the Indian Premier League. They will be heavily relying on the batting of their captain Tom Latham and all-rounders James Neesham and Daryl Mitchell.

The bowling responsibilities will be shared by Ben Lister, Matt Henry, Adam Milne along with leg-spinner Ish Sodhi. With no rain expectation in the coming days, batting at the Gaddafi Stadium is likely to be easy.

‘It will be a quick turnaround from the fantastic series win against Sri Lanka,’ said Jurgensen of New Zealand’s 2-1 T20 victory. Former spin-king Saqlain Mushtaq will be Jurgensen’s assistant -- just two months after completing his stint as Pakistan’s head coach.

‘It will be a challenging series,’ Jurgensen said. ‘Obviously Pakistan are a fantastic team to play in the white-ball format, so it’s a good opportunity to challenge them.’ The tour comes as something of compensation for New Zealand pulling out of their visit to Pakistan on the day of the first game in September 2021, citing security concerns.

The Black Caps played two Tests and three ODIs in Pakistan just three months ago. The remaining four T20 matches are on April 15 and 17 in Lahore, and 20 and 24 in Rawalpindi.

Teams (from):

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Zaman Khan

New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Chad Bowes, Mark Chapman, Matt Henry, Ben Lister, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, Will Young, Dane Cleaver, Cole McConchie, Blair Tickner