Adil Rashid makes England Test debut against Pakistan

The hosts are planning to call up an extra spinner as cover, possibly one of the two slow left-armers – Zafar Gohar and Mohammad Ashgar – who played against England for the A team last week.

Anderson, who already stands alone among Englishmen with 413 wickets in his record-breaking career, was a teenage hopeful at Old Trafford when Wasim was plying his trade so successfully for Lancashire.

Cook also confirmed that Ali, previously slotted in at eight, will join him in opening the batting against Pakistan, with Adam Lyth having lost his spot in the squad with a series of underwhelming performances and Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales yet to prove himself worthy.

“It’s a bitter blow for him; he’s had a huge 12 months”.

Since 2010, Pakistan have won Test series against Sri Lanka, England and Australia while they drew the five-day match series with South Africa by 1-1. “We just have to hope for the best”, he said, according to Express.

“That’s the way we want to play”.

It is there too, though, that England’s seamers can expect the most help from any of the arid surfaces of the Emirates. “And if we do manage to win it would be right up there”. In case if he won’t recover then we need to have someone and we are working on that.

“I’m really excited about what’s going to happen”. He got a back spasm and let’s see [how his recovery goes] overnight.

“I’m itching to get going again”, Anderson said.

“So obviously, he will be a big miss for them”.

This Test series, though is poised to be memorable for different reasons, for two veterans of the side -Misbah and Younis Khan. Pakistan’s ODI team Captain Azhar Ali also won’t be available for the first Test due to an injury.

England and Pakistan will play the first Test match of the three-match series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

“I thought he was the key wicket for us”. It opens the way for a recall for Shoaib Malik but they must ponder who should bat at three.

The other option is Jonny Bairstow, the incumbent specialist number five batsman who is facing a strong challenge for that role from former Worcestershire academy player James Taylor.

Azhar’s misfortune appears to fall into the category of curious sporting injuries.

Instead, he was left cruelly on the sidelines from a problem he first felt during action last Friday when taking 4-15 in a hostile spell of bowling against Pakistan A.

However as compared to England, Pakistan are expected to perform well and yield much better results because pitches in UAE support spin bowlers and Pakistan are bestowed with a few excellent spinners such as Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar.

“It puts a little bit more emphasis on you as a bowler”.