Pakistan captain Shaheen Afridi chose to field first against New Zealand in the first T20I at Eden Park on Friday. New Zealand suffered a setback with Mitchell Santner testing positive for Covid and being ruled out of the series opener. As a result, New Zealand will have a slightly longer tail, with Adam Milne batting at 7 and Ben Sears coming into the side. Pakistan made changes to their batting order, with Babar Azam dropping down to number three. They also handed out two debuts, to legspinner Usama Mir and fast bowler Abbas Afridi. Azam Khan returned to the side as the designated wicketkeeper, while Fakhar Zaman dropped down to number four. Here are the playing XIs for both teams:
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
