Naved-ul-Hasan ruled out of Lord's Test

Naved-ul-Hasan has been preserved for the remainder of the series © Getty Images

Pakistan's Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will miss the first Test against England at Lord's after his coach Bob Woolmer confirmed that he wasn't ready to submit the player to a proposed fitness test at Canterbury.

He reasoned that though Rana showed encouraging signs in his recovery from a groin injury, it would be a risk to rush him into the squad this early, especially since he is yet to regain his full pace at the nets. He added that the fitness test has been postponed by a few days to gauge his recovery.

"Rana's fitness test has been put back a few days as he is recovering well and we are prepared to give him more time", said Woolmer. "He won't be available for the first Test match but could certainly be available after that. We were going to see how fit he really was and put him through it. But we have just knocked that back two or three days because the groin is getting better and we don't want to rush it too much."

The absence of Rana and Shoaib Akhtar gives Mohammad Asif the chance to shoulder the responsibility. Asif had a rewarding tour of Sri Lanka recently picking up 17 wickets in two Tests. His swing and cut prompted Younis Khan, the Pakistan vice-captain, to draw comparions with Australian Glenn McGrath.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Asif made a big impression on this England tour", Younis told bigstarcricket.com. " We are obviously missing Shoaib (Akhtar) and also probably Rana Naved for the first Test at least but Asif will make an impression, I'm sure. He is looking like a young Glenn McGrath at the moment. He is not very fast but he's accurate, knows about line and length and has a good, mature cricket brain for a youngster."

Asif is one of the six fast bowlers in the Pakistan squad, and Younis remained upbeat after the performances of Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami in the tour match against Leicestershire. "Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami are also looking very good, fit and confident", he said. "It shows that our squad is becoming stronger and that we can cope when key players are missing."

On Pakistan's chances, he observed that unlike their previous tour this time they would be playing during the second-half of the English summer, which would help his side acclimatise faster. He added that the dry wickets would assist his spinners.

"The conditions are very good for us at the moment, which wasn't the case back in 2001 when we were confronted with a moist pitch at Lord's in the middle of May and were beaten by an innings after failing to come to terms with England's seamers."