No blame attached to Broad over Zulqarnain

Zulqarnain, 24, has a hairline fracture on a finger in his right hand, an injury that is believed to have been sustained prior to the second Test at Edgbaston but potentially aggravated by Broad.

The England seamer hurled the ball towards Zulqarnain as he was batting and he was in some discomfort after blocking the throw with his hand. Broad was later fined half of his match fee for the incident.

Zulqarnain's wicketkeeping rival Kamran Akmal was being put through his paces at The Oval yesterday as Pakistan prepared to restore him behind the stumps.

But opener Imran Farhat said Broad should not be blamed.

"We wanted him (Zulqarnain) to play because the way he batted last time was very good and we learned a lot from him," said Farhat.

"But if he cannot play it doesn't matter because we have Kamran who has been working hard also.

"We are not sure what happened. He had a problem with it anyway but he got hit (by Broad's throw) and it hit him on the same finger and the pain got worse.

"We are not blaming Broad, it could have happened before."

Farhat was part of the side that drew 1-1 with Australia in England earlier this summer.

Now, having been on the wrong end of two heavy defeats at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, he has seen both Ashes rivals at close quarters.

Ricky Ponting said yesterday that a 5-0 Australia win was entirely possible when they meet England again this winter, but Farhat does not agree.

"No, I don't think that is possible personally," he said. "I think Australia are on the way down now. If we can beat them, England can beat them also.

"They are a good team, no doubt about it, and they are not easy to beat. But they talk too much, they try to disturb too much. England can beat them but it will be hard. They might need earplugs."

England certainly appear a stronger unit than the side which headed to Australia in 2006-07 when they were hammered by a team still containing the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.

But when asked yesterday if the new-look Australia could repeat that feat, Ponting replied: "It's absolutely possible. There's no reason why not.

"There's no doubt we made some mistakes in the last Ashes series in England that probably cost us the series. We know we're a more experienced and probably better team now than we were then."