Shake Pakistan choose to bat vs Zimbabwe
Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first in the first T20I in Bulawayo. Salman Ali Agha, captain of the team, said this series was as much about giving youngsters a chance as it was about winning. “We just want to get a good total on the board. In the second half, it might get slower and lower,” Agha said. Although Pakistan did not debut, they were a renewed team. Omair Yousuf, Tayyab Tahir, Irfan Khan and Sufiyan Muqeem play, while Saim Ayub returns to the top of the order.
Zimbabwe are in good form in this format, having won all their matches in the regional qualifier in October, but now face higher-level opposition. “We have played a lot of T20 cricket in the last few months,” captain Sikandar Raza said. “We played ODI cricket after nine months, but we played T20 cricket consistently and we have been producing fantastic results for the country, so we hope to have another good game of T20 cricket.” Ryan Burl and Wellingston Masakadza, missing from the ODI series, returned to the team.
Zimbabwe: 1 Tadiwanashe Marumani (week), 2 Brian Bennett, 3 Dion Myers, 4 Sikandar Raza (captain), 5 Ryan Burl, 6 Clive Madande, 7 Tashinga Musekiwa, 8 Wellington Masakadza, 9 Richard Ngarava, 10 Blessing Muzarabani, 11 Trevor Gwandu
Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Tayyab Tahir, 3 Omair Yousuf, 4 Usman Khan (wk) 5, Salman Agha (captain), 6 Irfan Khan, 7 Jahandad Khan, 8 Abbas Afridi, 9 Abrar Ahmed, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Sufiyan Muqeem
