AUCKLAND, Dec 24: Ross Taylor, who will captain New Zealand in their three-match Twenty20 International series against Pakistan, starting on Boxing Day here, admits he hasn't been at his best recently, but is eager to reclaim some form against Shahid Afridi's brigade this summer.

Taylor enters the clash on the back of a disappointing tour of India. In five One-day Internationals he passed 50 only once and averaged 27.6.

“I didn't play as well as I would have liked in India,” Taylor said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to score a lot of runs and I didn't do as well as I would have liked.

“When people speculate about your position in the team you don't like to not score any runs.”

He added there would not be any wholesale technical variations made to his batting leading into the Pakistan series. “You are constantly evolving your game and tweaking little things here and there. I think getting the confidence back will be one of the main things.”

With Daniel Vettori rested for Twenty20 matches due to a back injury, Taylor has assumed captaincy and said it was a role he enjoyed.

Meanwhile, wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum is likely to miss the first two of New Zealand's three Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan because of back soreness.

Selectors' spokesman Glenn Turner said on Friday that McCullum had undergone the fitness test he had demanded after initially being left out of the squad, and it showed he would 'almost certainly' miss the matches at Auckland on Sunday and Hamilton on Tuesday.

Turner said McCullum had 'shown great determination and a great willingness to push through discomfort' and may be available for the third match of the series at Christchurch on Thursday.—Agencies