Toss: Pakistan chose to bowl v New Zealand
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Wahab Riaz and Imran Khan came into the Pakistan bowling attack in place of Yasir Shah and Rahat Ali © AFP
Azhar Ali, Pakistan’s 31st Test captain, chose to bowl first in his first match in charge, with a green pitch and overcast conditions expected to provide plenty of help for the seamers. Given these factors, Pakistan left out their legspinner Yasir Shah and went for an all-pace attack. Wahab Riaz came into the side, while Imran Khan replaced Rahat Ali to give the attack a good balance of right-arm and left-arm quicks.
With Misbah-ul-Haq missing the Test, having gone home following the death of his father-in-law, Pakistan also handed Mohammad Rizwan a Test debut.
New Zealand made two changes to the side that won the first Test in Christchurch, with Matt Henry replacing Trent Boult, who is out with a knee injury, and the left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner coming in for the legspinner Todd Astle.
New Zealand: 1. Jeet Raval, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt.), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Matt Henry
Pakistan: 1 Sami Aslam, 2 Azhar Ali (capt.), 3 Babar Azam, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Mohammad Rizwan, 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Sohail Khan, 11 Imran Khan
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo