PAK vs NZ: Pakistan's (PAK) Predicted Playing XI Against New Zealand (NZ) - ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Match 19

Pakistan made an outstanding start to their ICC T20 World Cup 2021 campaign after registering a 10-wicket win over India in their first game on Sunday. A collective bowling effort helped the team restrict India to 151 runs in the first innings on a good batting surface of Dubai International Cricket Stadium. In pursuit, the Pakistan opener shared an unbeaten 151-run partnership to chase down the score in just 17.5 overs.

Ahead of their second match of the tournament against New Zealand, here’s a look at our predicted playing XI of Pakistan.

PAK vs NZ: Pakistan’s (PAK) Predicted Playing XI Against New Zealand (NZ) – ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Match 19

Openers: Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan

Pakistan’s talented openers showed on Sunday why they are rated so highly in modern-day cricket. After restricting India to a 151-run total in the first innings, both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan played scintillating knocks to guide their side home comfortably.

The duo kept rotating the strikes and ensured they hit the ball balls to the boundary ropes. They rarely played a bad shot and gave no chance to India to come back into the game. Mohammad Rizwan scored 79 runs off 55 balls, while skipper Babar Azam scored 68 runs off 52 balls. Pakistan, as a result of that, chased down the target in just 17.5 overs.

Middle-order: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali

Barring the openers, none of the players got to bat in the first game against India. Having won the first game against India, Pakistan won’t be looking to take any chance as far as the batting department is concerned.

In the last warm-up fixture against West Indies, Fakhar Zaman scored a half-century, while Shoaib Malik scored 28 off 20 balls. Asif Ali too made a significant contribution of 32 runs off 18 deliveries.

All-rounders: Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim

Both the players bowled wonderfully in the last game against India. Imad Wasim was used in the powerplay and he did his job quite well. The left-arm spinner gave no room to Indian batsmen and kept asking difficult questions. He gave just 10 runs in his 2 over-spell.

His counterpart, Shadab Khan was also brilliant in his four-over spell. He bowled in the middle overs and didn’t allow batsmen to hit the big shots easily. He gave the right flight and pitched the ball at great areas and also got the important wicket of Rishabh Pant as a reward. Shadab Khan finished his spell with 1 for 22 in 4 overs.

Bowlers: Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, and Shaheen Shah Afridi

It was Shaheen Shah Afridi who set the tone for Pakistan with a brilliant spell in the power play. He made great use of the swing on offer in the first few overs and accounted for the wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul to put India on the backfoot.

Later, he also picked the wicket of Virat Kohli in the 19^th over to deny India of 10-15 more runs at the fag end of the innings. Afridi made outstanding returns of 3 for 31 in 4 overs. Haris Rauf bowled all his overs in the latter half of the innings.

He bowled a lot of slower balls and the Indian batsmen had no answer to that. In his four overs, he gave just 25 runs for 1 wicket. Hasan Ali was the only bowler who proved expensive as he went for 44 runs in his 4 overs. He also took two wickets as well. Nevertheless, Pakistan are unlikely to make any change in the bowling department.