Wasim Akram to make 100th test appearance

Arshad may not play but Kaneria is expected to make his debut.

He would bowl in tandem with off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq who picked up all the eight wickets in England’s first innings 480 for eight declared in Lahore. Shahid afridi will be on hand to lend support.

Pakistan Captain Moin Khan said he would be relying on his spinners to bowl out England twice. ”Players like Saqlain have the ability to do that. But we must a make respectable score to dictate terms.”

Akram, Pakistan’s former captain, said his 100th appearance would be ”like any other test for me”.

”But if we can win it will be a wonderful gift for me.”

England will be making their first test appearance in Faisalabad since the infamous finger-wagging tiff between then England Captain Mike Gatting and Pakistan umpire Shakoor Rana in 1987.

A day’s play was lost in the second test of the three-match series while Rana sought an apology from gatting.

Relations at all levels between the two countries were affected by the row and, although Pakistan toured England twice after that in 1992 and 1996, England stayed away from Pakistan for 13 years.

Current England skipper Nasser Hussain is confident his batsmen will again equip themselves well against the Pakistani spin attack.

”We proved during the first test that our batsmen can cope against the spinners. If we apply ourselves and play with as much concentration we can still put up a good show against them,” he said.

”The pitch at Faisalabad looks very similar to Lahore but we have to be at our best against a talented side like Pakistan.”

Yorkshire batsman Michael Vaughan has been ruled out of contention after failing a fitness test on a calf injury.

Pace bowler Matthew Hoggard, who had a match return of eight for 30 in the touring team’s last warm-up match against a Pakistan Cricket Board X1, has been added to the 12 chosen for the first test.

Neither camp will name their side until tomorrow morning.

Teams (from):

Pakistan: Saeed Anwar, Saleem Elahi, Shahid Afridi, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin Khan (captain), Wasim Akram, Abdur Razzaq, Danish Kaneria, Saqlain Mushtaq, Qaiser Abbas, Arshad Khan, Imran Nazir, Faisal Iqbal, Waqar Younis.

England: Mike Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe, Nasser Hussain (captain), Graeme Hick, Alec Stewart, Craig White, Ashley Giles, Ian Salisbury, Andrew caddick, Darren Gough, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies), Mian Mohammad Aslam (Pakistan).