Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat against New Zealand

Pakistan got the chance for a do-over in Hamilton after their captain once again had the coin fall his way. Batting first didn't work at Eden Park as they slipped to 39 for 5 but that didn't deter Shadab Khan from wanting runs on the board again, although he did throw down the gauntlet to his misfiring top-order batsmen: "win the powerplay". Khan's faith in the status quo was such that he didn't even change the XI that lost the first T20I by five wickets.

New Zealand were bolstered by the return of several all-format players. Kane Williamson is back after the birth of his daughter. Tim Southee and Trent Boult - whose work in Test cricket made Richard Hadlee see parallels with the West Indies bowling attack of the 70s and 80s - will want to show they can do similar damage in the shortest format. Kyle Jamieson, all 6'8" of him, is here as well and will be looking to put off opposition batsmen once more with his bounce and swing.

Making way to accommodate the big boys in the XI were Jacob Duffy, Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell and Blair Tickner.

Pakistan: 1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Haider Ali, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shadab Khan (capt), 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Shaheen Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Devon Conway, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Scott Kuggeleijn, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Ish Sodhi