LAHORE, Oct 15: Pakistan's premier strike bowler Shoaib Akhtar is doubtful for Saturday's final. A final decision on his taking the field will be taken before the start of the match.

The temperamental pacer bowled only four overs in Thursday's match against Sri Lanka and skipper Inzamamul Haq revealed that Shoaib could not complete his quota of overs due to a hamstring problem.

However, the body language of the speedster on Thursday gave an impression of some sort of a cold war between the Rawalpindi Express and the team management. While the team management continues to stress that in their strategy Shoaib Akhtar was more useful as one change than armed with the new ball.

Shoaib, on the other hand, has made his feelings known in no uncertain terms that he is more comfortable using the new ball than operating the old one. Ever since Shoaib was asked to change his role "in the interest of the team", the pacer's performance graph has been on the downside.

Without doubt he is the only match-winning bowler in the Pakistan team and, on his day, capable of destroying the best of batting line-ups single-handedly. Unless the issue is sorted out soon it is possible that Pakistan may lose its only world class bowler.