Cairns faces a difficult job with an inexperienced team

Regular skipper Stephen Fleming is absent because of injury and six players declined to go on the tour.

The 15-man squad includes uncapped seam bowlers Tama Canning and Matthew Walker and batsman Craig Cumming.

The home side have recalled Junaid Zia, son of the Pakistan Cricket Board president, for the series, which starts on 29 November.

As well as the three new faces, the New Zealand selectors have also recalled batsmen Mathew Sinclair and Hamish Marshall, and seamer Kerry Walmsley.

But Shane Bond, their fastest bowler, was not considered because he is undergoing rehabilitation work following a stress fracture in his back and all-rounder Nathan Astle (knee) is also on the sidelines.

"The absence of several established players have paved the way for others, and they will now get their opportunity," said chief selector Sir Richard Hadlee.

"For the selectors this is exciting as we will now get to learn something about the new players' capabilities at international level."

Zia did little of note in his first four one-day appearances

Pakistan will start favourites for a five-match series which was arranged to compensate them after New Zealand abandoned their 2002 tour following a bomb explosion close to the team hotel in Karachi.

They will be looking to atone for a 3-2 defeat by South Africa in a home one-day series last month when they squandered a 2-0 lead, but will be without opener Taufeeq Umar, whose recurring knee problem has flared up again.

The recall of Zia is contentious, but chairman of selectors Aamir Sohail insisted it was based on current form.

"He was one of the star performers of the inter-departmental qualifying tournament, taking 35 wickets and scoring over 150 runs.

"In addition to this, he was also judged Player of the Series in Sri Lanka where the Pakistan Emerging team won the tournament."

New Zealand squad: C Cairns (captain), T Canning, C Cumming, C Harris, P Hitchcock, R Jones, H Marshall, M Mason, B McCullum, J Oram, M Sinclair, D Tuffey, D vettori, M Walker, K Walmsley.

Pakistan squad: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Imran Farhat, Saleem Elahi, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Moin Khan, Danish Kaneria, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Misbah-ul-Haq, Junaid Zia.