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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.

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Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief operating officer Salim Altaf said "seniority" was the main criterion in deciding the contracts which saw Akhtar named in the top 'A' category with captain Shoaib Malik, vice-captain Misbahul Haq, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt and Danish Kaneria.

He missed out on a central contract last year following Pakistan's Test and one-day series defeats in India in 2007, when he was often absent through illness and injury.

Angered by his exclusion, Akhtar publicly criticised the PCB and was handed the ban before its reduction on appeal.

The talented and fiery Akhtar has taken 178 Test wickets in a chequered international career that began in 1997. He tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in October 2006, although his two-year ban was overturned on appeal.