August 03, 2006	Thursday	Rajab 7, 1427

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KARACHI, Aug 2: Pakistan must play out of their skin if they aspire to win the ongoing Test series against England, says coach Bob Woolmer.

Talking to Dawn from Leeds where the third Test begins at Headingley on Friday, Woolmer remained philosophical about the outcome of the series after England annihilated the visitors in the second Test last week to go 1-0 up in the four-match rubber.

“It will be very tough and we will have to play a lot better than we have so far,” he said.

“We had a very fruitful team meeting and the boys have identified the areas where they can improve and we will need to do so in this game if we are to salvage anything from the series.”

The former England batsman who also coached South Africa and Warwickshire with success during his career, ruled out the possibility of either Shoaib Akhtar or Mohammad Asif playing any part at this stage of the tour.

“Both players have made good progress in the last couple of weeks. There is an outside chance both could be fit and available for the final Test at The Oval.”

Woolmer conceded the fact that Kamran Akmal was only a makeshift arrangement as an opener during the Old Trafford Test which Pakistan lost by innings and 120 runs inside three says.

“We were forced to put Kamran up the order to allow us an extra spinner (Shahid Afridi) in the playing eleven. We asked him to do the job which I and Inzamam-ul-Haq felt he was quite capable of doing.”

He further added that it was ‘tough’ to leave out Salman Butt. “Clearly, once we thought of putting Kamran up front, it was a case of dropping either Imran Farhat or Salman.”

The 58-year-old official disagreed when asked whether the in-form Faisal Iqbal could be tried out at the top of the order. “It is an option but not a good one I believe because he is definitely a middle-order player,” he pointed out.

Woolmer, who started his tenure with Pakistan in June 2004 after the Javed Miandad was sacked, hinted that England may opt for Jon Lewis at Headingley where the ball tends to swing more, traditionally.

“I might guess (and it’s only a guess) that England could draft in Lewis (a swing bowler) instead of Sajid Mahmood. But from our point of view, we will be discussing at length dealing with the likes of (Matthew) Hoggard and (Steve) Harmison,” he said.

However, Woolmer added that England might go in with two fast men again as there was a false impression that Pakistani players were scared.

Woolmer refused to admit that Pakistan made the cardinal sin of batting first on the bounciest Test pitch in England. “We do not have the luxury of hindsight and as the game is over we cannot dwell on what might have been had we fielded first. At 94-2, ten minutes before lunch, all looked pretty good.

“It’s a funny game cricket and we had the worst of it at Old Trafford,” he remarked.