It’s New Zealand Vs Pakistan in the 1st Test match of the series (starting 26/12/20), and here in our match preview, we have all the information you need along with our match prediction.
New Zealand Vs Pakistan Betting Odds
- Match Odds – New Zealand 3/10 – The Draw 5/1 – Pakistan 11/2
- Opening Partnership – New Zealand 2/5 – Pakistan 7/4
- First Innings Lead – New Zealand 2/7 – Pakistan 9/4
- ICC Match Centre
Match Preview
- New Zealand Vs Pakistan – 1st Test Match, 26th December 2020, to 30th December, 2020.
- The match is being played at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganu. It starts at 11am on Boxing Day, local time, which is 10pm on 25th December, UK time.
- This is the first of a two Test matches between the nations, and is the final leg of Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand.
- The hosts New Zealand won the proceeding T20 series, 2-1.
- A 2-0 win in this Test series would give New Zealand a good chance of making it to the final of the World Test Championship (WTC).
- In their last two Test matches, New Zealand completely destroyed West Indies. Played at home, the Kiwis won by an innings in both matches at the start of December.
- The last Test matches Pakistan played were in England last August. Pakistan lost a three match weather effected, topsy-turvy series 1-0.
- They should really have won the Test match they lost, but were in pretty bad positions in the two weather effected drawn matches.
- Pakistan are without Babar Azam, and also have no Shadab Khan.
- The Kiwis are at full strength, and have rotated and rested star players like Kane Williamson. It’s hard to remember the hosts going into a match in such as strong position.
- Weather – Four of the five days are set to be fine. Only Sunday (Day 2) has a bit of rain forecast.
- New Zealand Squad – Kane Williamson (C), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Lathan, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling (WK), and Will Young.
- Pakistan Squad – Mohammad Rizwan (C and WK), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.
New Zealand Vs Pakistan 1st Test Prediction 26/12/20
The bookies make New Zealand heavy odds on favourites. Have the hosts ever being in a better position than they currently find themselves?
If the weather doesn’t intervene, it’s hard to see the hosts not winning.
For the tourists, they have the bowling line up to trouble any side in the world. Kiwi conditions can be similar to England, and the Pakistani bowlers have shown they are capable in these conditions.
With no Babar Azam, the already weak looking Pakistani batting is further diminished though. And that’s where the tourists are likely to come unstuck.
If this Pakistan batting line up is put under any pressure, I can see it crumbling.
So the only hope I can see for the tourists in this one, is bowling first and knocking the hosts over for a paltry score.
