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Cricket

Friday, August 6, 2010

Pakistan struggling after elected bat fisrt

Broad took 3 wickets as pakistan 36/6


Salman Butt has taken the brave decision to put his brittle batting line-up into the firing line straight away at Edgbaston after winning the toss on a cloudy morning. As revealed yesterday evening Mohammad Yousuf doesn't make the starting XI after his dash from Pakistan while Kamran Akmal has been dropped.

England, meanwhile, have had far fewer concerns and as expected have named an unchanged team with Andrew Strauss not overly worried about bowling first. He expects some help for his in-form pace attack - including James Anderson playing his 50th Test - on a ground where England have often excelled, although there will be less support than normal as half the venue is currently a building site.

The build-up to this Test has been dominated by the will-he, won't-he guessing game surrounding Yousuf's hasty call-up to the squad. In the end he didn't feel ready to come straight into a Test so Pakistan's batting line-up contains the same personnel as last week although they have juggled the order with Shoaib Malik moving to No. 4.

The major selection decision the visitors have taken is to drop - or "rest" as Butt put it - Kamran following his horrendous Test at Trent Bridge where he didn't score a run and was a liability behind the stumps. It means a long-awaited Test debut for Zulqarnain Haider.

The other change is a recall for Saeed Ajmal, the offspinner, as a replacement for Danish Kaneria who has been sent packing back to Essex. However, he hasn't been able to get a game for them yet because his registration needs to be renewed. It just about sums up Pakistan at the moment.

England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn

Pakistan 1 Salman Butt (capt), 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Umar Amin, 7 Zulqarnain Haider (wk), 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Asif