LAHORE, Jan 9: Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who on Monday was asked to rush to South Africa to bolster the injury-hit Pakistan squad, will be forced to miss the first Test at Centurion starting from Thursday due to non-availability of seats on flights.

According to the sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), hectic efforts to get the fast bowler on a flight to South Africa went in vain as no seats were available - either from Karachi or from Dubai - till Thursday, the opening day of the first Test match.

An ankle injury to fast bowler Umar Gul and all-rounder Shoaib Malik had prompted the Pakistan team management in South Africa to send for either Shoaib or Shabbir Ahmed and the PCB decided to send the former after his impressive show against Abbottabad in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy tie last Sunday. However, now Inzamam-ul-Haq’s men will have to take the field without Rawalpindi Express in the first Test.

Despite the successive injury setbacks for Pakistan and the non-availability of prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf and all-rounder Abdul Razzak, the visitors have quality pacers such as Mohammad Asif, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Nazir and Mohammad Sami to fall back on and to make a match of it at Centurion.