Bengaluru/UNI: Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and elected to field first ahead of their crunch match with New Zealand in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.

New Zealand has got a big push today with the return of their skipper Kane Williamson after recovering from a thumb injury, while leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has also been drafted in to challenge the Pakistani batsmen.

Will Young and the injured Matt Henry have been replaced with the experienced Kiwis.

Babar has gone with Hasan Ali with an objective to strengthen the pace more as Pakistan needs to nail New Zealand to keep their semifinals hope alive.

The 1992 World Cup champions also need to win convincingly enough to boost their net run rate to close in on New Zealand's rate, then follow up with another victory when they face England next Saturday to keep their semifinal dream alive.

New Zealand almost had one foot in the knockout stages when opening their World Cup with four consecutive triumphs, but three losses on the trot and injuries to key players suddenly have their campaign on a knife's edge.

Kyle Jamieson has been left out of the New Zealand XI after taking the place of Henry in their World Cup squad, though the tall right-armer is expected to be crucial at the pointy end of the tournament.

Playing XIs

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim.