RAWALPINDI, Nov 1: Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer plans to stick with the same opening pair in the home series against England in an attempt to resolve the team’s chronic problem at the top of the order.

In the last five years, Pakistani selectors have shown little patience with openers, using 25 different pairings since the successful partnership between Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail broke up in 2000.

“We don’t want to confuse this issue in this series. We will not experiment in this series. We want to go with two openers and give them a proper run,” Woolmer said on Tuesday.

Pakistan have tried out eight pairings in as many Tests and have had just one opening partnership of more than 100 in their last 15 — when Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed had a stand of 102 against Australia in Sydney in January.

By comparison, England have enjoyed five partnerships of 100 or more between Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss in their last 12 Tests, with a highest of 273 against South Africa in Durban last December.

“We want to give a decent run to the openers. We want to give them confidence. Because it is toughest facing the new ball,” Woolmer said.

“If we can find a stable partnership in this series than we are on the road to overcoming this problem,” he added.

Salman is the only specialist opener in Pakistan’s 16-man squad for the first two Tests against England but all-rounders Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik have opened for Pakistan.

“Definitely we need a stable pair in this series because they have a good new ball attack,” Woolmer added.

Pakistan’s most successful opening pair was Saeed and Aamir. Saeed scored 4,052 runs in 55 Tests, including 11 centuries, while Aamir made 2,823 runs in 47 appearances.—Reuters