NZ VS PAK 2024/25, NZ VS PAK 2. T20I MATCH PREVIEW

Big Image: Second Chance of Pakistan

The focus will remain on Pakistan’s batting as the action moves from Christchurch to Dunedin in the Five-Match Men’s T20i series. Pakistan’s new Captain Salman Agha had asked for “high risk” cricket, but it didn’t come out in the first T20i on Sunday. Pakistan actually hit a new low in that game after being bowled out for 91, which New Zealand then comfortably chased down into 10.1 overs.

In the absence of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, who have been dropped, and Saim Ayub, who is still recovering from an ankle injury, handed Pakistan Hasan Nawaz a debut and opened with Mohammad Haris, who played a T20i after almost two years, with Salman Slotting in No. 3. Despite attempts to go big from good-go-se-pack on pagic single-digit score with Khushdil Shah Top scoring with 32 out of 30 balls. How is Pakistan going in the second match after the failure of the first?

Although New Zealand lacks key players due to their IPL obligations, the early battles of the ball landed in the first match thanks to Kyle Jamieson and Jacob Duffy, who shared seven wickets between them at the end. Tim Seifert, Finn Allen and Tim Robinson then tore Pakistan’s attacks apart.

When they build their reserves, New Zealand will also appear to continue their dominance. And Jimmy Nesham, who has not played for New Zealand since June 2024, may have to wait for his turn.

Form Guide

New Zealand WLWWW (Last five ended T20i’s, latest first)
Pakistan Llllw

In the limelight: Jacob Duffy and Salman Agha

In the five T20Is he has played between November last year, and in March, Jacob Duffy has brought 12 wickets to an impressive economy of 5.54. In the opening match he hit his second ball and ended with figures of 4 for 14 in 3.4 overs. The fast bowler will again be crucial to New Zealand’s bowling attack.

Salman Agha has played a total of seven T20Is after debuting in the format last November. After five laps in the middle order, he promoted himself to No. 3 in the first game and made a 20-ball 18. The sample size is small and his strike speed for six rounds in T20is stands at 81.92. But after taking the leadership role in T20is, Agha will be eager to contribute more and at a healthy pace.

Team news

New Zealand is unlikely to think of the winning combination and will probably go with Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy and Zakary Foulkes in the Pace Department and Ish Sodhi and Captain Michael Bracewell as Spinners.

New Zealand (Probable): 1 Tim Seifert, 2 Finn Allen, 3. Tim Robinson, 4 Mark Chapman, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Mitchell Hay (WK), 7 Michael Bracewell (Capt), 8 Zakary Foulkes, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Kyle Jamieson, 11 Jacob Duffy

Pakistan handed a debut to fast bowler Mohammed Ali and asked him to open the bowling with Shaheen Afridi. This meant that Haris Rauf was not in the first game. Ali Bowled Three Overs and admitted 25 races. As it is a five-match series, Pakistan would like to give a few more options for Ali before bringing the experienced Rauf in.

Pakistan (Probable): 1 Mohammad Haris (WK), 2 Hasan Nawaz, 3 Salman Agha (Capt), 4 Irfan Khan, 5 Shadab Khan, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Jahandad Khan, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Abrar Ahmed, 11 Mohammed Ali

Pitch and relationship

The University Oval in Dunedin has so far hosted three men’s T20i’s. The last one was played in January 2024, when Finn Allen’s 137 led New Zealand to 224, and they beat Pakistan with 45 races. It has generally been a batting-friendly surface with teams scoring 9.88 that runs over to this place in T20is. Three out of six times the teams have sent 200 plus hotels here. The forecast on match day is for occasional shower in the middle of cool weather.

Statistics and Trivia

Tim Seifert, who has played all three T20Is that Dunedin has hosted, has an average of 56.50 at the venue.
Since the beginning of 2020, New Zealand has won eight of the 12 T20Is against Pakistan at home.

Quotes

“[It’s] Definitely my home ground, lived here since I was 18, so good to be home, obviously spent a lot of time away in Pakistan four or five weeks before this series too, so I’ve only had a few nights since then, so it’s good to come home, come home to the dog. Looking forward to getting out to what I think is the best reason in the country. “New Zealand quickly Jacob Duffy On to play in Dunedin.

Srinidhi Ramanujam is an under -editor with Espncricinfo