Quality suffers as quantity shrinks

Getting a team on the field for the second Test at Old Trafford starting here tomorrow is threatening to become a major achievement for England...

Getting a team on the field for the second Test at Old Trafford starting here tomorrow is threatening to become a major achievement for England and Pakistan as both sides try to cope with mounting injury lists.

Last week England suffered a major setback when Andrew Flintoff, who missed the drawn series opener at Lord8217;s, was ruled out for the rest of the reason with an ankle injury. England had hoped the star all-rounder would return to captain them for the second match of the series at his Lancashire home ground. Instead he faces a fresh operation.

And their pace bowling resources were further depleted yesterday when Durham quick Liam Plunkett was ruled out of this match, and the third Test at Headingley, with a side strain.

England at least have the consolation of being at home where replacements from the county game are plentiful in number, if not quality. Pakistan though have been equally hard-hit. They remain without the pace trio who were all absent at Lord8217;s: Shoaib Akhtar ankle, Mohammad Asif elbow and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who has been ruled out of the whole series with a groin problem. Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik are, however, available for selection. But there was futher bad news for Pakistan when leg-spinning all-rounder Shahid Afridi was hit on his right arm when batting in the nets.

The loss of Flintoff, however, will be keenly felt by his home crowd, but Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said: 8220;We can8217;t look at individuals. We must look at the England team as it comes and get on with the game of cricket. We8217;ll just carry on with the game.8221;

Left-arm spinner Monty Panesar bowled with penetration. England have uncapped off-spinner Jamie Dalrymple, one of the few success stories from their 5-0 one-day series thrashing by Sri Lanka, in what is now a 13-man squad and they could be tempted to give a debut to the Middlesex man on account of his supposedly superior batting to that of Panesar.

Pakistan have slow bowling issues of their own with a decision on whether to recall leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed, currently playing for English county Sussex, still to be taken. Woolmer was confident Afridi would be fit to take his place alongside fellow leg-spinner Danish Kaneria in the tourists8217; attack.