England announce team for final warm-up game in Peshawar

Dominic Cork: vital in England, but dropped in Pakistan Photo © CricInfo Ltd. Colleen Briggs

England gave a strong hint as to the make up of their Test side with the announcement of their team for the final warm-up game. With the First Test against Pakistan only a week away, the game against the Governor's XI in Peshawar is the last opportunity for match practise before the Test team is selected.

England will field both specialist spinners, Salisbury and Giles in a move that suggests they will both figure in the Test team. It is hoped that the pitch in Peshawar will prove more conducive to spin than was the case in Rawalpindi. The Test pitches are expected to spin considerably.

There was bad news for Dominic Cork. The Derbyshire captain regained his England place against the West Indies, and played a crucial role in their defeat. But against the Patron's XI in Rawalpindi he lacked penetration with the ball and failed with the bat. It appears he may be sacrificed in order to make way for the spinners.

Alex Tudor, a late replacement for Andy Flintoff, already seems assured of a winter practising his waiting skills.

Caddick and Gough will spearhead the seam attack and gain from a workout after missing the game in Rawalpindi. Craig White, who is fully recovered from the hamstring strain that kept him out of the attack in the second innings in Rawalpindi, will support them.

Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart also return to the side after the trials and tribulations of the last week. Atherton and Vaughan keep their places in order to provide them with more experience of the Pakistan conditions. Vaughan will need a decent score to edge Hick out of the race for a middle order spot.

The decision to play Stewart came after a noticeable improvement in his morale in the last couple of days. There has been concern that the trauma of the 'money for information' scandal might render him mentally unfit for the rigours of Test Cricket.

The view now is that Stewart has recovered enough to be able to concentrate on his game, and by playing will stop any brooding on the subject.

"He's chirped up over the last couple of days," Nasser Hussain explained.

"He had a nice trip to the Khyber Pass yesterday with some of the other boys and he seems to be back to himself."

"Only Alec will know for sure what he's like and I think he'll be happy that the cricket has started up because he's a cricketer, and he'll now be able to focus his mind on the cricket."

"As soon as the story first broke, I went to see him and check he was alright and Alec is sensible enough and been around enough to know whether he's fit to play or not - he'll be very professional about it."

"There have been all these things like flies, dew and bottles and the Alec Stewart story which has made it tough, and where cricket gets put second," Hussain continued.

"In this part of the world you can't do that for too long, we have to work really hard and the cricket has to come to the front of our minds because you can't take your eye off it out here."

"Whatever else is happening in the world in a week's time, we have a very well balanced Pakistan side who are going to take us on, and we have to be ready for that."

Referring to the side for the game in Peshawar Hussain commented: "We've picked a side that is the most sensible before going into a Test Match, we're just trying to produce sensible options."

"We have to get into our heads that if we ever turn up to a ground and we need to play two spinners then we have to make sure they do a lot of bowling."

"You don't get too much daylight here and we probably won't bowl the full quota of overs, and we'll be trying to get two bats and two bowls if possible to give us as much preparation as possible for the Test."

The Governor's XI features three former Test players Kabir Khan, Mohammad Hussain and captain Rashid Latif.

England team to face Governor's XI tomorrow: MA Atherton (Lancashire), ME Trescothick (Somerset), N Hussain (Essex, capt), MP Vaughan (Yorkshire), AJ Stewart (Surrey, wkt), GP Thorpe (Surrey), C White (Yorkshire), AF Giles (Warwickshire), IDK Salisbury (Surrey), AR Caddick (Somerset), D Gough (Yorkshire).

Governor's XI (from): Rashid Latif (capt & wkt), Taufiq Umer, Taimoor Khan, Yasir Hameed, Naumanullah, Adnan Akmal, Mohammad Hussain, Imran Farhat, Sajid Shah, Akhtar Sarfraz, Kabir Khan, Mian Adnan.

Umpires: Sajjad Asghar & Iqbal Butt.