Spinning combination anxious to stake Test claim

England's selectors must decide whether the spinning partnership of Ashley Giles and Ian Salisbury can win them the first Test match or if a seven man batting line is the best way to defy the might of the Pakistan attack.

By the time the Test match starts on November 15, Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain will have had the opportunity to study their spinners working in tandem and know if their teamwork poses a bigger danger to Pakistan on a turning wicket than their other option which is to go with one spinner and seven batsmen.

Both Salisbury and Giles are useful late order batsmen who can contribute valuable runs towards the end of an innings but including both in the side would mean sacrificing a specialist batsman.

The options will be tried out over the next few days during England's match against a Governor's XI in Peshawar, the final warm up game before the opening Test in Lahore.

But leg-spinner Salisbury is confident that he and Giles have what it takes to create a strong partnership after his years of experience bowling with Saqlain Mushtaq at his county club Surrey.

"When you are partners, which is the same as me and Ashley here, you are both doing the same thing and you chat to each other about spin bowling, how are we going to try and get wickets and how are we going to bowl," he said.

"When I'm bowling with Saqlain we're obviously both slightly different so we're going to get our wickets in different ways, but generally we try and encourage each other and keep each other going.

"It's very important to have a spinner at the other end to help you - Ashley bowls with Neil Smith at Warwickshire and it's so much easier when there's two of you."

"Pakistan will probably hit us with two spinners and maybe with three and if we're only playing one it's a bit unfair," added Salisbury.

"It's a bit like being back in the schoolyard and if there were three people ganging up on one, you know which person you'd back.

"I think the pressure will be on their guys because they have two of the best spinners in the world and everybody is expecting them to bowl us out and for them to beat us, so whatever we do is going to be a bonus."

Both bowlers believe that the art of spinning in England could enjoy a revival if they enjoy success this winter.

"It would be really nice if we did really well and I hope everyone else feels like that in England," Giles said.

"Saqlain is one of the best off-spinners in the world and we've read that we're on a hiding to nothing.

"We're told we're not up to much and our record keeps getting brought up, so we've got to just enjoy it and not worry about the pressure.

"If we do well then that's fantastic and people might just sit up and take notice, but you just have to put up with the criticism."

Following a week of hard practice on the field and uncomfortable times off it, England's cricketers enjoyed a full day off today with six members choosing to visit the nearby Khyber Pass.

Tommorow, they return to the nets at the Shahi Bagh Stadium, the venue for their final warm-up match starting on Wednesday.