Colombo, Feb 20 (IANS) The Pakistan Cricket team will face New Zealand in the first match of the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8s round to be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday. Pakistan and New Zealand are placed in Group B with two-time champions England and co-hosts Sri Lanka in the Super 8s section of the tournament.

This will be the 50th time Pakistan will face New Zealand in a T20I. Both teams have a neck-to-neck competition in the shortest format, with Pakistan winning 24 of the 49 matches played so far between the two sides, while New Zealand has won 23 matches, and two matches have ended in a tie.

Pakistan have the upper hand when it comes to the T20 World Cup history. Both teams have faced each other seven times in the World Cup, out of which Pakistan have won five clashes, while the Black Caps emerged as the winner in two encounters.

New Zealand and Pakistan last played a T20 match in March last year, when New Zealand hosted the 2009 T20 World Cup champions for a three-match series, which the home side won 2-1.

Head-to-head record between Pakistan and New Zealand in T20Is

Total Matches Played: 49

Pakistan Won: 24

New Zealand Won: 23

No Result: 2

Performance of both teams in their last 5 matches

Pakistan: W, W, W, L, W

New Zealand : L:, W, W, L, W

Squads:

Pakistan: Salman Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq.

New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (captain), Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi.

–IANS

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