Pakistan face New Zealand in the first T20I at Dubai on Thursday. It has been a tough time to play cricket after Phillip Hughes‘ demise, but New Zealand came up with an inspiring performance by the Kiwis in the third Test at Sharjah where they clobbered Pakistan by an innings and 80 runs. After equalling the Test series 1-1, it will be interesting to see how both teams get into the T20 format. Although, this is not the perfect moment to focus on the T20 cricket, it is an opportunity for both teams to draft in few ODI players in the line-up before the ICC World Cup 2015.
New Zealand have got in Kane Williamson to captain the T20 side in the absence of Brendon McCullum, who has returned to New Zealand. The Kiwis will also miss the two pace spearheads — Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Williamson last captained New Zealand when they toured West Indies in July. New Zealand hasn’t played any T20I recently, and the last T20I they played was almost five months back against West Indies, which they eventually lost. Anton Devcich, who was last seen playing for New Zealand A in United Arab Emirates (UAE), will make a comeback in the senior team after almost a year. It will be again a good opportunity for him to impress the selectors. Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne will be responsible for the pace bowling department in the absence of Boult and Southee.
Pakistan will be lead by Shahid Afridi in the two T20I matches. Pakistan last played a lone T20I against Australia at Dubai in which they only managed to scramble 96 for the loss of nine wickets batting first. In the end they were defeated by six wickets. Pakistan will see return of Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz in the team. Gul is making a comeback to Paksitan ODI and T20I team after he last played in the ICC World Twenty20 earlier this year. Ahmed Shehzad who hit on the head in the the second Test by Corey Anderson is included in the squad. They have also included opener Awais Zia who featured in the lone T20I against Australia but failed to impress.
Pakistan have only won two of the five T20Is they have played this year while New Zealand have won five out of the eight matches they played.
Squads:
Pakistan: Wahab Riaz, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Awais Zia, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Irfan, Raza Hasan, Saad Nasim, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi (c).
New Zealand: Adam Milne, Luke Ronchi (wk), Tom Latham, Martin Guptill, Dean Brownlie, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, James Neesham, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan, Matt Henry, Anton Devcich, Corey Anderson, Daniel Vettori.
Time: 16:00 GMT | 21:30 IST
(Varun Arorais a reporter with CricketCountry. He started as a medium-fast bowler, converted to an opening batsman but finally settled with his passion of writing about the game. His Twitter handle is @varunjgd)
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