Pakistan's squad landed in the UK yesterday to find English cricket at its lowest ebb for several years. Inzamam-ul-Haq's men started England's post-Ashes recession, when they came back from an apparently hopeless position to win at Multan. Now they have a chance to accelerate the slide.
If Pakistan had a full hand of pace bowlers, it would be hard to see England out-playing them over this four-Test series (which starts at Lord's on July 13). But Inzamam has injury problems of his own. Shoaib Akhtar has a stress fracture in his ankle, which should restrict him to commentary stints until the final stages of the tour. And Rana-ul-Naved has a sore groin, presumably sustained while pulling up one too many trees for Sussex in April and May.
Pakistan will not decide until Wednesday whether Naved will even be named in the side. It has been suggested that he, like Ashley Giles, has been suffering from the condition known as Gilmore's Groin.
