Azam's 44-ball 69 and Fakhar Zaman's 33-ball 43 took Pakistan to 178-5 in their 20 overs before Shaheen claimed 4-30 to restrict New Zealand to 169 in 19.2 overs

Opener Tim Robinson hit a maiden half century to lift New Zealand to 178-7 in 20 overs before pacer William O'Rourke claimed 3-27 to keep Pakistan down to 174-8

With wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan ruled out on the eve of the series with a muscle tear, Haseebullah Khan, who was called up as replacement, is likely to keep wickets in the last two matches in Lahore later on Thursday and on Saturday.

"To be honest the batting wasn't that bad. We managed to catch up later on but I think we were 10 runs short and you know Rizwan also faced a setback and got injured so a new batter had to step in but as you know it's not easy for a new batter to adjust early on," Babar said.

This was Rizwan's 79th Twenty20 innings, beating his skipper Babar Azam and Indian great Virat Kohli who both completed 3,000 runs in 81 T20I innings.

Shaheen led the attack with 3-13 while Amir, returning to international cricket after nearly four years, finished with 2-13

Azam regained the captaincy last month in a shock U-turn that ended the short-lived reign of Shaheen Shah Afridi, raising fears of a rift between the players.

The Black Caps will arrive in Islamabad on April 14 and play three matches in Rawalpindi on April 18, 20 and 21, with the last two scheduled for Lahore on April 25 and 27.

The tourists lost the five-match series 4-1 but it ended on a positive note as they dismissed the Black Caps for a paltry 92 in defence of 134-8.

Shadab disappointed with just two wickets and 121 runs from six World Cup (50 overs) matches in India in November before injuring an ankle in domestic competition.