Andrew Strauss began England’s attempt to reinforce their No. 1 Test ranking by winning the toss and choosing to bat in front of sparsely populated stands in Dubai.

Strauss said he didn’t think the pitch would especially help the spinners and so England chose the fast bowler Chris Tremlett as their fourth bowler over left-arm spinner Monty Panesar. Both Ian Bell and Stuart Broad were cleared to play after having minor injury scares.

While England played three fast bowlers and one spinner, Pakistan picked two quicks and two specialist spinners. They also had the option of Mohammad Hafeez’s offbreaks. Aizaz Cheema was preferred as Umar Gul’s new ball partner over Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz.

England: 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Chris Tremlett

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Taufeeq Umar, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnam Akmal (wk), 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Aizaz Cheema