Bresnan in for England as Shahzad suffers injury

ENGLAND bowler Ajmal Shahzad has been ruled out of the first Test against Pakistan due to an ankle injury and his Yorkshire team-mate Tim Bresnan has been called into the 12-man squad, the ECB have confirmed.

Bresnan will practice with the team at Trent Bridge today ahead of the match, which gets under way tomorrow, but Shahzad will not feature as a precaution.

ECB chief medical officer Nick Peirce said: "After twisting his left ankle with Yorkshire over a week ago, Ajmal went on to successfully play in a Clydesdale Bank 40 match for his county last Monday.

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"Unfortunately, Ajmal felt some discomfort following England practice at the NCPC on Tuesday and, as a precautionary measure, it is felt he is best to undergo rehabilitation on the ankle for the remainder of this week.

"We expect Ajmal to make a full recovery. He hasn't been ruled unavailable for the 2nd npower Test starting next week. He will continue to be assessed this week before a decision on his fitness is made."

National selector Geoff Miller is hopeful Shahzad will be available for the second Test at Edgbaston, starting on August 6.

He said: "His career's just starting. There's lots for him to work at. It's disappointing for him, obviously, but he'll fight back.

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"We'll monitor and work on his problem, his ankle. He'll come in and the medical staff will work on him.

"We'll keep it open. We're not picking sides for the two Test matches -we're doing it separately, Test by Test."

Miller is pleased to have been able to draft in Bresnan and reckons Shahzad's Yorkshire team-mate will be up to the task if called upon.

"We've created over the last year or so a strength in depth so we've got international-quality players who can fill in at any given time," Miller added.

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"Tim comes into the squad. It's a squad of 12 and obviously somebody will be left out. We don't know who that will be at this stage, we'll wait and see what the surface and the conditions are like."

Asked what he thought of the wicket, he replied: "Typical Trent Bridge really - very good wicket. There's a little bit of a cracking on it but they don't seem to break up too much. We think we know what it's going to play like so we'll select accordingly."