England's batsmen will get an early taste of Pakistan's in-form bowling attack after Andrew Strauss won the toss at Trent Bridge and decided to bat first. It is an overcast morning but the pitch is dry and expected to take turn as the match progresses.
Salman Butt, the Pakistan captain, said he would also have batted first but he won't be overly disappointed to be able to unleash his new-ball attack straight away. They are high on confidence after the performance against Australia, at Headingley, where they skittled Ricky Ponting's team for 88 on the opening day.
Trent Bridge has a history of encouraging swing bowling so Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif should be a handful for England's top order. Both sides line-up as expected with Pakistan unchanged from the Leeds Test and England leaving Tim Bresnan, a late replacement for the injured Ajmal Shahzad, out of the starting line up.
While England's batting order is deep there are a number of players under pressure. Kevin Pietersen needs a good series after a lean time this season while Eoin Morgan is aiming to prove he should be the reserve batsman on the plane to Australia. Talk of the Ashes will never be far away over the next four weeks, but this series has the ingredients to be a compelling contest in its own right.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn
Pakistan 1 Salman Butt (capt), 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Umar Amin, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Mohammad Aamer, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Danish Kaneria, 11 Mohammad Asif
Source: http://www.cricinfo.com/
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