Stead explained why Ravindra was being rested, having played in five countries in the last five months. Ravindra was the fourth-highest run-scorer at the World Cup and was later picked up by CSK at the IPL auction for INR 1.8 crore (US$ 216,000 approx.).

"Rachin's a young player who has immense value to New Zealand Cricket and we therefore want to look after his wellbeing," Stead said. "He's the only player or staff member to have been touring non-stop for the past five months across five countries and that's simply not sustainable. He's still very much part of our thinking for the T20 World Cup in June and will come back into the reckoning for the T20 series against Australia in February."

The rest of the squad is on similar lines to the one that drew the T20I series against Bangladesh last week. Kyle Jamieson and Michael Bracewell were not considered as they continued to recover from their injuries while Trent Boult and James Neesham were unavailable due to overseas T20 commitments.

The first of the five T20Is will be played in Auckland on January 12 followed by games on January 14, 17, 19 and 21.

NZ squad for Pakistan T20Is

Kane Williamson (capt) (except game 3), Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Josh Clarkson (game 3 only), Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ben Sears (games 1 & 2), Lockie Ferguson (games 3, 4 & 5)