Pitch to have the final say - Woolmer

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has said that they will decide on their team for the second Test at Old Trafford only after taking a good look at the pitch. He also felt that the pitch could assist the seamers, meaning that Mushtaq Ahmed, the legspinner, might not play.

"We will take a look at the Old Trafford pitch before we decide which team to play," Woolmer told Dawn. "There has been speculation about Mushtaq Ahmed and other players and we are keeping all our options open since we don't have a master blaster in our ranks."

Woolmer was happy with the performance of the opening batsmen after the tour match at Northampton and said that Pakistan could go in with the same combination. Salman Butt and Imran Farhat scored half-centuries and guided the Pakistanis to a win.

"The openers have come under a lot of scrutiny," said Woolmer, "and if the truth be known they are young and still learning. But they are both good players and before the second innings at Northampton we asked them to show their mettle and they responded.

"They are likely to open at Old Trafford unless we go for a different formation in which case we might open with Kamran Akmal. I personally do not favour change for change's sake. We might, however, consider a change for tactical reasons, again depending on the pitch."

The fast bowlers too have performed creditably, felt Woolmer, despite injuries to Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. "[Mohammad] Sami needs more confidence and [Umar] Gul bowled some good spells at Lord's. If Sami could reproduce more often the ball he dismissed [Alastair] Cook with, he would be sensational."

Shoaib, recovering from an ankle injury, is expected to return for the third Test at Headingley starting August 4, but Woolmer cautioned against rushing him into the final eleven in haste.

"Shoaib's appearance in the third Test would be the first prize," said Woolmer. "The third Test will be pushing it, though, because a stress fracture requires time to heal. We are doing something called loading, which means providing blood to the area of the stress fracture so that it can heal as quickly as possible. We can't overdo it. In ten days we'll know if he can start bowling."