Pakistan set to make changes

Imran Farhat is struggling to make the third Test © Getty Images

Pakistan are set to alter the make-up of their team for the third Test against England, at Headingley, following their innings-and-120-run mauling at Old Trafford. Imran Farhat has been ruled out with a broken finger while Bob Woolmer is also considering whether to dispense with the tactic of playing two legspinners.

At least one change will be enforced for the Pakistanis with Farhat struggling after breaking his right ring finger on the second morning at Old Trafford while catching Kevin Pietersen in the gully.

"Imran Farhat is struggling to field and he is unlikely to come into contention for selection," Woolmer told reporters at Headingley, which means that Pakistan are set to have two new openers on Friday. Kamran Akmal filled one position in the second Test but was removed twice by Steve Harmison and was uncomfortable against the pace and bounce. It seems a waste for Pakistan not to make more use of his skills down the order.

Salman Butt, dropped after a double failure at Lord's, is in line for a recall and Taufeeq Umar, who joined the tour late as a injury cover, is also in contention. Umar played the last of his 24 Tests against India, at Kolkata, in March but has a decent average of 40 with four centuries.

The other area giving Woolmer plenty to ponder is the balance of Pakistan's attack. They are shorn of their leading strike bowlers with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif ruled out until at least The Oval and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan all series. Without their wickets, Pakistan have yet to bowl England out in three innings.

They have tried fielding Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi but their success has been limited and both were out-bowled by Monty Panesar at Old Trafford and Woolmer says Pakistan are considering bolstering their pace contingent. "Kamran's done it before [open the innings] and it allowed us to play both Afridi and Kaneria on that pitch. If we batted anything like they would have been very useful.

"It looks a much better surface than I've ever seen at Leeds," added Woolmer. "It's quite dry now. I suspect there won't be the sort of bounce we saw at Old Trafford but we'll have to deal with any surface we get and we'll have to learn to adapt quicker than we did."

However, Pakistan's options are limited with the other pacemen, Shahid Nazir, Iftikhar Anjum, or the uncapped Samiullah Khan unlikely to make the England batsmen lose any sleep.

"I suppose in modern cricket you are looking for seven batsmen and four top-line bowlers," said Woolmer. "Whether we can do that at the moment, it's not easy. But we might have to do that and tell the players to take responsibility and get on with it. We've got to be upbeat. If we want to win this series we've got to win the next two games. We have to come out positive, forget Old Trafford and put it right behind us."

He was also quick to look back at recent history to show that Pakistan shouldn't be written off. "We've had many situations like this - India at Bangalore and in Jamaica against the West Indies," before admitting, "but at the moment we have a lot of hard work to do.

"We had a very good team meeting two days after the Test match and the boys are very determined to bring it back. You have to accept at this level that you can lose.

"The good thing, funnily enough, was that we lost in three days because it gave us time in which to recover. There's a good energy in the team now, a good vibe and hopefully they'll fight back."