After losing the Champions Trophy final against India, the New Zealand team has returned home to play a 5-match T20 series and a 3-match ODI series against Pakistan. The first match of the T20 series will be played in Christchurch on March 16. They have defeated Pakistan 3 times in their home in the last month. First, they defeated Pakistan 2 times in the tri-series and then defeated them in the opening match of the Champions Trophy. Michael Bracewell has been made the captain of New Zealand for the upcoming T20 series. Regular Kiwi captains Mitchell Santner, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra and Bevon Jacobs are not available for the Pakistan vs New Zealand series due to their IPL commitments. However, the trio of Tim Seifert, Finn Allen and James Neesham have rejoined the team after missing out on the previous series due to their involvement in the T20 league. IPL 2025 is scheduled to start from March 22.
On the other hand, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been ruled out of the T20I series for Pakistan. Salman Ali Agha will captain the Pakistan team for the T20I series. He promised the media a few days ago to play fearless cricket in the upcoming cricket matches. Agha replaced Mohammad Rizwan as the T20I captain for the upcoming white-ball tour of New Zealand. Earlier, the team was also led by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Babar Azam but Pakistan had poor results, including a group-stage exit in last year's T20 World Cup, in which they lost to the USA. This has led to massive changes in the team, with many new faces and, importantly, the absence of some familiar ones. In the recently concluded Champions Trophy, Pakistan was eliminated from the group stage itself. They were eliminated after losing their first two matches against New Zealand and India. Now this team would like to take revenge on New Zealand soil.
Pakistan T20I squad: Omair Yousuf, Hasan Nawaz, Abdul Samad, Khusdil Shah, Salman Agha ©, Irfan Khan, Shadab Khan, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Haris, Usman Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Abbas Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufian Muqeem, Mohammad Ali
New Zealand T20I squad: Michael Bracewell ©, Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Zachary Faulks (Matches 4 & 5), Mitchell Hay, Matt Henry (Matches 4 & 5), Kyle Jamieson (Matches 1, 2 & 3), Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Will O'Rourke (Matches 1, 2 & 3), Tim Robinson, Ben Sears, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi.
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