Islamabad
Pakistan will play first T20 international of five match series against New Zealand in Auckland on Friday.
The match will start at 11:10 am Pakistan Standard Time.
New Zealand and Pakistan couldn’t have hoped for better preparation leading into the T20 World Cup less than six months from now. The losing finalists in 2021
and 2022 will be facing each other over a series of five matches, starting on Friday in Auckland, which will serve as fertile ground for implementing new strategies and/or seeing if maybe the old ones still work.
The hotshot
Pakistan have the most prolific opening partnership in T20 history. But they might not use it here.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have 2400 runs at the top of the order but their run-rate as a partnership is so paltry (7.92) they are ranked 37th out of the 43 contenders who have put up at least 500 runs together. So in comes Saim Ayub. He was among the top 10 run-getters in PSL 2023 and he got those runs at a strike rate of 165.53. Equally as compelling are his stats from the CPL last year, which he won with Guyana Amazon Warriors.
In conditions where the World Cup will be taking place, Ayub scored 478 runs at a strike rate of 142.26. He has potential written all over him.
Pakistan have already bet on him in nine international matches so far. Now it looks like they’re going all in.
