London, Aug 17 (IANS) Pakistan captain Salman Butt has said senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf will be playing the third Test against England starting here Wednesday at The Oval.
‘Yousuf is a world class player and we certainly need him. He will be playing tomorrow,’ Salman said.
Butt, however refrained from revealing his playing eleven for the Test, saying that it will be finalised after a training session later Tuesday afternoon.
Yousuf was rushed to England after Pakistan lost the opening Test but did not play in the second Test in Birmingham.
Pakistan, trailing the four-Test series 0-2, trained here at The Oval for a couple of hours under a dark cloud cover.
It seems like the sun will never come as long as the Pakistan player are out there in the field.
‘It certainly seems like that,’ said Butt. ‘Overcast conditions have followed us wherever we’ve gone on this tour,’ he said after the training session. ‘It has certainly made life really tough for my young team,’ added the opener, who was made captain after Pakistan succumbed miserably in the first Test against Australia at Lord’s last month.
Such were the conditions at The Oval that Butt and company were unable to read the wicket at The Oval during their training session.
‘The conditions were pretty overcast and the ball was swinging like it did in the last four Tests we’ve played on this tour so far,’ said Butt. ‘In such conditions, you can’t really predict the nature of the wicket and as to how it will behave during the Test. We just concentrated on how to handle the swing,’ he added.
The captain along with team coaches will take a long, hard look at the wicket before deciding on the playing eleven after the final training session here Tuesday.
‘We will only take a final decision on our playing eleven after taking into account the nature of the wicket and the playing conditions,’ he said.
But the captain said that there will be at least three changes in the line-up that Pakistan fielded in their 354-run defeat in the second Test in Birmingham.
Wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, who scored a fighting 88 in Birmingham, will be flying back home later this week because of a fractured finger. He will be replaced by embattled stumper Kamran Akmal, who was dropped after the first Test because of poor showing behind the stumps.
Pacer Umar Gul has been ruled out of the third Test because of a hamstring injury which means that Pakistan will have to bring in one of their two reserve fast bowlers – Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz.
Tanvir, an incisive seamer with plenty of first-class wickets under his belt, is in line for a Test debut. However, Salman was non-committal about it.
‘We are still undecided as to who will replace Gul,’ he said.
