Pakistan chose to bowl vs New Zealand
Pakistan’s new T20I captain Shaheen Afridi elected to put New Zealand in first in the first T20I at Eden Park, on Friday.
New Zealand have been dealt a late blow with the absence of Mitchell Santner, who was ruled out of the series opener after testing positive for Covid. NZC announced that Santner had self-isolated in his hotel room, and would travel onwards to Hamilton, where the second T20I will be played, on his own. It means New Zealand field a slightly longer tail, with Adam Milne batting at 7 and Ben Sears coming into the side.
Pakistan, meanwhile, have broken up the opening pairing of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, with Babar dropping down to three. They have handed out two debuts, to legspinner Usama Mir and fast bowler Abbas Afridi. Azam Khan has returned to the side as designated wicketkeeper after previously featuring in a T20I in March last year, while Fakhar Zaman drops down to four.
New Zealand: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Adam Milne, 8 Matthew Henry, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Ben Sears
Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Azam Khan (wk), 7 Aamir Jamal, 8 Usama Mir, 9 Shaheen Afridi (capt), 10 Abbas Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf