Asif joins Pakistan missing list
Asif joins Pakistan missing list
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Wednesday, 12, Jul 2006 09:28
Mohammad Asif has become the third Pakistani pace bowler to be ruled out of the first Test with England at Lord's tomorrow because of injury.
Asif has failed to recover from an elbow injury picked up at the weekend and despite resting the injury as the rest of the side trained and having a cortisone injection, he has been told he will not feature.
He joins fellow pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan on the sidelines, leaving Pakistan's bowling attack severely depleted.
"Unfortunately he hasn't reacted properly to the injection he had so he will be out," Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said.
Pakistan also have injury concerns regarding opener Shoaib Malik, who is also suffering from an elbow injury.
His condition will be assessed in the morning but it doesn't look good for the player as the problem is in his throwing arm, therefore restricting his fielding and his batting.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq blamed the run of injuries on the amount of cricket his team was playing.
However, he insisted that neither side could use their injury problems as an excuse during the upcoming series.
"Nowadays too much cricket is happening, someone is unfit for every team," Inzamam said.
"It's not just the England team, there is the same thing in the Pakistan team and other teams around the world."
If England win the series, they will leapfrog Pakistan back into second spot in the overall Test team rankings.