Hoggard tests hand in Lord's net

Matthew Hoggard tests out his hand injury during a net session at Lord's © Getty Images

Matthew Hoggard has managed to test his injured hand during a bowling stint in the nets at Lord's, raising hopes that he will be fit to take his place in the first Test against Pakistan on Thursday. Hoggard went through the session on during training on Wednesday and was able to match the other bowlers for pace. England will give him until the last minute to prove his fitness.

It was his first bowl since suffering the freak injury at Canterbury when his Yorkshire team-mate, Tim Bresnan, stood on his hand while wearing spikes in his boots. Hoggard needed six stitches in his right hand and has spent time in an oxygen chamber to aid his recovery process.

"He did some useful work in the nets today and every hour the hand is getting better. But we are going to give him as long as possible to prove his fitness," Andrew Strauss told reporters after practice but added Hoggard would have to do more than prove his bowling fitness. "Fielding is important. I don't think you can go into a game with a guy who is unable to field."

Hoggard has played in 32 consecutive Tests dating back to the 2004 tour of the Caribbean. In that time he has become an indispensable part of the England attack, and recently became the tenth Englishman to pass 200 Test wickets."We all know Hoggy's done a very good job for the England team over the last 24 months and, certainly since the Ashes, he's probably been the pick of our bowlers," Strauss said. "It's very important we do get him on the pitch but if he doesn't make it through it gives an opportunity to someone else."

Hoggard had visited a specialist on Sunday morning when it was decided to employ the same hyperbaric process at a hospital in St John's Wood that Simon Jones used as he tried to recover from his ankle injury before the final Ashes Test last summer.

Earlier in the week David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, said. "I think it would be reasonable to see him [Hoggard] bowl in the nets on Wednesday to see what he can do and what he can't."

England's spate of injuries has hit the team hard since the end of the Ashes, with Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Michael Vaughan and James Anderson all out of contention with a variety of ailments. "These things tend to happen in a cluster. It never rains - it pours," Hoggard told reporters at Canterbury. "When you have one injury you seem to get more, and we are just in a very bad trot of luck."

"As soon as I try and move it [right hand] or I hit it, it's still quite sore, but we've still got three or four days," Hoggard told BBC Sport on Tuesday. "If I can hold a cricket ball, that's fine, but it's the catching and the batting that's going to be the difficult part, so we'll just have to see how well the stitches have held together."

"It's very frustrating to be fit in every other aspect and just have a couple of scratches on your hand. I'm dying to play on Thursday, so I'll be doing all I can, but we'll just have to wait and see how it is."

Though Hoggard remains optimistic of playing at Lord's, Gloucestershire's Jon Lewis is on stand-by to step into his role having been named in a 13-man squad.