New Zealand v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Wellington

Revamped Pakistan choose to bat

Shahid Afridi chose to bat on a sunny afternoon at a sparsely populated Westpac Stadium in Wellington, as both Pakistan and New Zealand began the six-ODI series with the aim of fine-tuning their World Cup preparations. New Zealand were also desperate to win their first ODI after 11 consecutive defeats.

Daniel Vettori said he would have batted as well but didn't expect the pitch, which he predicted was full of runs, to change during the course of the game. New Zealand split their opening combination with Brendon McCullum dropping down the order to take advantage of the batting Powerplay, leaving Martin Guptill to partner Jesse Ryder at the top. Jacob Oram made a return to the team after recovering from surgery for a patella-tendon injury, while Hamish Bennett also made a comeback after sustaining an injury in his debut Test.

The Pakistan team was extremely different from the one that contested the Tests. Kamran Akmal took over as wicketkeeper from his brother Adnan and will open the innings while his other brother, Umar, returned to the middle order. The bowling attack also sported a new look with Sohail Tanvir and Shoaib Akhtar sharing the new ball. Tanvir last played for Pakistan in November 2009; his previous ODI was in May that year.

New Zealand: 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 James Franklin, 6 Brendon McCullum (wk), 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Hamish Bennett

Pakistan: 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Abdur Rehman, 10 Sohail Tanvir, 11 Shoaib Akhtar

George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo