Cricket World Cup 2023: Pakistan to face New Zealand on Indian soil after seven years

At ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 hosted by India, Pakistan will play their first World Cup warm-up game against New Zealand in Hyderabad. Although it is a practice match, the context will be much bigger for Pakistan as they are playing in Indian soil after a gap of seven years.

Hyderabad:Pakistan playing in India has become a rarity in recent times but some mega events in the sports convert even the rare possibilities into reality. Cricket fans will see such a phenomenon unfolding in front of their eyes as Pakistan will kick off their World Cup preparation with the warm-up game against New Zealand. A closed door event- the match will be telecast live on STAR Sports 1, STAR Sports 1 HD and STAR Sports 1 Hindi HD from 12.30pm onwards. The match will begin at 2pm.

Notably, Pakistan last played in India in the T20 World Cup 2016 and will play on Indian soil after a gap of seven years. Only Mohammad Nawaz and Salman Ali Agha have played in India while Babar Azam was to able to play in 2016 due to an injury.

While Pakistan have a fearsome pace attack, New Zealand have an accomplished batter in the form of Kane Williamson who is labelled to be one of the fab four of the current era because of the class oozing from his bat. The onus to put out an excellent display of batsmanship will be majorly on Babar Azam who is one of the best in the business and Mohammed Rizwan who has been consistent for Pakistan. Fakhar Zaman also plays a key role with the bat but the only problem for the team occurs when they are chasing a total as the batting unit often crumbles under pressure.

Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf can wreak havoc with their swing and pace respectively. However, the team will have Naseem Shah who has exceptional talent to swing the new ball both ways.

Kane Williamson's return to the national fold will be a big sigh of relief for the Blackcaps as they aim to win the World Cup to be held in India. He along with Devon Conway has a lot of responsibility as New Zealand have some young batters in their lineup. The New Zealand skipper will expect Boult to cause some damage with the new ball while Lockie Ferguson will be supposed to bamboozle batters with his pace.

The only sign of worry might be spin department for them as Ish Sodhi has been taking wickets but Mitchell Santner hasn't been much effective with the ball. Inexperienced Rachin Ravindra will be another spin option but his lack of practice in playing against quality teams might turn out to be costly for the national side.