England eleceted bat first and Again Cook Fails

AN Cook c †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Asif 6 (7b 1x4 0x6) SR: 85.71

Unlike the first two Tests of the series where the captains could have gone either way, Andrew Strauss was left with a simple decision to bat first at The Oval as England begin their quest for a series-clinching victory. Their 2-0 lead has been achieved with efficiency and some style, barring the third afternoon at Edgbaston, and they are a confident group but this time will face a Pakistan team with four changes as the visitors look for some inspiration.

Mohammad Yousuf makes his return to Test cricket at No. 4 while Kamran Akmal is back for the injured Zulqarnain Haider. They have made two further changes with a recall for Yasir Hameed in place of Shoaib Malik and a debut for paceman Wahab Riaz for the injured Umar Gul.

Unusually both teams were confirmed before the morning of the match and exceptionally in England's case three days out from the contest after they named an unchanged XI on Sunday. Tim Bresnan flew down from Yorkshire's Championship match against Durham at Chester-le-Street as cover yesterday, but will shortly be making a hasty return up north.

There are two England players under pressure for different reasons; Alastair Cook needs to turn around a lean summer so that he can head to Australia with confidence and Stuart Broad needs to show a better attitude than on the third day at Edgbaston when he hurled the ball back at Haider, who is now ruled out with a broken finger, and received a 50% fine.

The what extent Broad's throw played a part in Haider's absence from the rest of the series remains a subject of conjecture, but Pakistan will miss the fighting qualities Haider showed last week. It means an early reprieve for Kamran after his horrific game at Trent Bridge and it will be a severe test of his mindset.

England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn

Pakistan 1 Yasir Hameed, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Salman Butt (capt), 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Azhar Ali, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Asif