Captains to miss first T20 tonight
Santner handed armband for Black Caps
New Zealand and Pakistan will have to do without their talismanic captains Kane Williamson and Babar Azam when the Twenty20 International series gets under way tonight at Eden Park.
Black Caps skipper Williamson sits out the first of three T20s following the birth of his first child, but will be available for the remainder of the series.
Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson and Daryl Mitchell also miss the opener from 7pm, following soon after New Zealand sealed a crushing test series whitewash of West Indies this week.
Mitchell Santner captains New Zealand for the first match of the series, which Lockie Ferguson misses with a partial stress fracture in his lumbar spine, in Auckland. He is out for 4 to 6 weeks.
Afractured thumb keeps Babar out of the series, so Shadab Khan — who has been struggling with a groin injury — steps up to lead his country.
Seamer Jacob Duffy is set to make his New Zealand debut and will be looking to give another demonstration of the Black Caps’ strength in depth ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup next year.
“It’s amazing how many people reach out when you sort of get the call-up,” Southlander Duffy, Otago’s white-ball skipper, said. “No, it’s pretty exciting, especially for a small community like that.
“I’ve really enjoyed growing up there, playing all my cricket there, and a little bit of Hawke Cup cricket and stuff. People down there are really fizzed.
“I remember they were fizzed up when I first played for Otago, so this is another step up and it’s really cool.”
Morefireworks?
Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway unsurprisingly retain their place in the New Zealand squad after their heroics in at20 series-clinching drubbing of the Windies.
Phillips smashed a 46-ball century — the quickest by a New Zealander in T20IS — and Conway blasted 65 not out in 72-run hammering in Mount Maunganui at the end of last month.
Their brutal 183-run stand was a world record for the third wicket in the shortest format at international level.
Phillips also took two catches and affected a run out after making 108 off just 51 balls — hitting eight sixes and 10 boundaries in a devastating knock.
The in-form 24-year-old has since made 136 opening for New Zealand A in a four-day match against their Windies counterparts, so Pakistan’s bowlers will not be queueing up to bowl at him