Trescothick confident team will overcome loss of Vaughan

England’s stand-in captain Marcus Trescothick says his team is strong enough to overcome poor batting form and the loss of Michael Vaug...

England’s stand-in captain Marcus Trescothick says his team is strong enough to overcome poor batting form and the loss of Michael Vaughan for tomorrow’s first Test against Pakistan.

“Boys are in good shape and are sort of switched on in the last couple of days,” Trescothick said today.

Trescothick was handed the captaincy after Vaughan was ruled out of the first Test with an injury to his right ankle sustained Monday during a warmup game.

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“He (Vaughan) is not too bad. It’s never great to see from sidelines those guys practicing everyday when you want to be running around and leading the side,” Trescothick said.

“It’s up to him to remain positive as much as he can and make sure he can get fit as quick as possible. Hopefully he still takes a big part in this series,” he added.

England’s batsmen have struggled for runs on the Pakistan wickets since arriving late last month.

“It wasn’t an ideal preparation to lose a game coming into the Test match. Obviously not a situation that you want to be in,” Trescothick said.

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“It (defeat) does give you a bit of wake up call to make sure you do remain switched on and you work hard.” Trescothick said.

“You have to be mentally more demanding (in Test matches) and it will be more than a challenge.”

Trescothick also hinted that he might use two spin bowlers — Ashley Giles and Shaun Udal — in the first Test after seeing the dry wicket at Multan stadium.

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq said he was excited to lead the team in his hometown and denied that England starts as favorite in Vaughan’s absence.

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“We have a little bit of advantage after Vaughan’s injury, but England is a tough team and we have to work hard,” he said.

The Teams

Pakistan (from): Inzamam-ul Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Asim Kamal, Shahid Afridi, Hasan Raza, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Mushtaq Ahmed, Arshad Khan and Danish Kaneria.
England (from): Marcus Trescothick (captain), Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Shaun Udal, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson, Matthew Prior, Liam Plunkett and Alex Loudon.
Umpires: Simon Taufel (Australia) and Billy Bowden (New Zealand) TV umpire: Asad Rauf (Pakistan).
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka).