Pakistan vs New Zealand 1st ODI Tips - Full-Strength Pakistan Start Favourites In Packed Home Summer

By Nikhil Kalro

06 Feb 2025

Nikhil Kalro 06 Feb 2025

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Pakistan prepares for the ODI tri-series as a tuning exercise for the Champions Trophy.
Key players like Shaheen Afridi and Fakhar Zaman return to strengthen Pakistan's squad.
New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, brings momentum from their World Cup semi-final run.

Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan (Getty Images)

Pakistan vs New Zealand ODI Tips
Pakistan Form
Pakistan Team News
New Zealand Form
New Zealand Team News

Pakistan vs New Zealand ODI Tips

Preparation for the Champions Trophy begins in earnest as Pakistan get ready to host New Zealand and South Africa for a short four-match tri-nation ODI series, starting on Saturday.

While all three teams will look into this series as preparation for an ICC tournament, this particular series will have several different narratives, including Pakistan hosting international cricket on a large scale.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) moved the series from Multan to Lahore and Karachi last month.

While there isn’t much context to this series, apart from tuning up, there could be several changes to all squads with key players being rested as is the case with South Africa.

Pakistan Form

Pakistan are coming into this series on the back of a two-match Test home series against West Indies. Pitches for those matches were extremely slow and spin-friendly with both games finishing within three days.

Pakistan will continue to look at their spinners to break games open, led by legspinner Abrar Ahmed. The squad will be led by Mohammad Rizwan.

Pakistan Team News

This Pakistan team features the return of several notable players, including Shaheen Afridi, Faheem Ashraf and Fakhar Zaman.

Pakistan’s squad also contains a strong pace-bowling quarter that consists of Naseem Shah, Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain and Haris Rauf. These bowlers will be rotated as this series progresses.

New Zealand Form

New Zealand’s squad will be led by Mitchell Santner, who will be an important cog as a spin-bowling allrounder.

New Zealand will carry plenty of confidence and momentum from their performance in the 2023 ICC World Cup in India, where they finished as semi-finalists.

New Zealand Team News

Jacob Duffy was added to the New Zealand squad as cover for Lockie Ferguson, who is participating in the ILT20.

Ben Sears, Matt Henry, Ferguson and Will O’Rourke will be the fast bowlers for New Zealand for this series as well as the upcoming Champions Trophy.

Verdict

Pakistan v New Zealand

New Zealand are a formidable team in these conditions with their tact and resources. However, Pakistan are back to their full-strength squad after a few months of turmoil.

At home, the expectations on Pakistan are already high. Starting off with performances of substance in this tri-series will be high on their priority list. In these slow conditions, you would expect Pakistan to be just a tad stronger.