Pakistan captain Salman Agha won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bat in the first Super Eight fixture in Colombo against New Zealand.
Moments after that decision was made, rain, which was forecast for the start of the game, began to steadily pepper the R Premadasa Stadium, with the covers beginning to roll onto the square. However, Pakistan have found defending totals much easier than chasing, and Agha pointed to that as a factor in their decision.
Pakistan made just the one change, with Fakhar Zaman replacing Khawaja Nafay for his first game of this tournament. New Zealand added Ish Sodhi to their playing XI to bolster their spin stocks to suit the conditions, with the Premadasa much less flatter than Chennai, where New Zealand played three of their four games. Lockie Ferguson, who arrived in Sri Lanka late last night, has passed a fitness test and also features in the playing XI.
This is the 50th T20I match between the two sides, the first match-up in this format to reach that landmark.
New Zealand: 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Finn Allen, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Mark Chapman, 6 Daryl Mitchell, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Jimmy Neesham, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Lockie Ferguson
Pakistan: 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Salman Agha (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Fakhar Zaman, 6 Shadab Khan, 7 Usman Khan (wk), 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Faheem Ashraf, 10 Salman Mirza, 11 Usman Tariq