Injuries, more injuries and now the real thing...

A three-day match against Leicestershire, a one-day bash in Scotland, a four-day fixture against England A at Canterbury and a Twenty20 slog, irrelevant to the longer form of the game, has been the sum total of our preparation before the first Test, which starts today, writes Bob Woolmer in The Times ahead of Pakistan's first Test against England at Lord's.

I am expecting a dogfight, not least because positive results are normally obtained on three of the four Test grounds we are playing on, namely Lord’s, Headingley and the Oval...

Pakistan’s preparation going into the first Test of the tour can hardly be described as satisfactory, as their suspect batting has had little exposure to front-line English bowlers, writes Asif Iqbal in The Khaleej Times. He adds that for Danish Kaneria to succeed,he needs the weight of runs to bowl at so the onus is on the batsmen to perform.

With so many injuries and the batting having had limited exposure on this tour so far, I would expect Pakistan to approach the Lords Test with a great deal of caution.