Pakistan hope to stop Sloppy Cricket as Kiwis seek to dominate

What Pakistan had shown in the second half of 2017, was vanished away totally, with their unpredictable whitewash in the ODIs. As it now seems, they were back to their sloppy ways of playing.

Although there were some positives to take from their losses, their problems at the top of the order making most of the talking points, with the result has been determined earlier to their positives.

However, now with the change in format from ODI to T20I allows them to be more unpredictable, with the format itself as it, in its nature. While their recent form in T20I is on a high winning against Sri Lanka and World XI, but the fact is, they need to show content in these away conditions.

New Zealand on the other hand well in truly dominated the visitors and roaring in confidence very highly. The shift in format doesn't change it much, as they too have done well, where Kiwis won against West Indies earlier in the home season.

Now, the T20I series between these two sides going to be battle of No.1 vs No.2, but it depends on Pakistan whether they play No.2 standard. While they do have a sniff to take on Kiwis, as they rested few key players for the first T20I.

Pitch and Conditions

        The pitch at Westpac gonna is hard and true to bounce, while finger spinner may not get any assistance from the surface. The last T20I at this venue seen Pakistan loss by 95 runs in 2016.

Pakistan

            From the selection point if view there isn't much that gonna alter for visitors, as they will try and replicate the ODIs, although there might be one interesting change in Shehzad, and the premier pacers might comeback.

Playing XI: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Babar Azam, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Rumman Raees, 11 Mohammad Amir.

New Zealand

                  The hosts have to change the squad, after being resting few key players for the first T20I, which mean Phillips and Bruce will fit in XI, other than those, they need to decide between Wheeler and Rance.

Playing XI: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Glenn Phillips (wk), 6 Tom Bruce, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Ben Wheeler/ Seth Rance, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Ish Sodhi