England in Pakistan, 2005-06

Shaun Udal is set to make his Test debut at the age of 36 as England and Pakistan named their squads for the first Test in Multan on Saturday. Ian Bell is set to step into the No. 3 spot left vacant by Michael Vaughan. Alastair Cook, the 20-year-old left-hander from Essex, was called up as cover for the injured Vaughan, but he is not in the 13-man party. Bell is in line to get the nod despite poor form in both the Ashes and the warm-ups.

Vaughan will stay with the team and continue to receive treatment, and his replacement Marcus Trescothick says his team are ready to overcome an unsettling lead-up to the match, having lost both a warm-up game and their usual captain.

"The boys are in good shape and are switched on," said Trescothick, who was named as England's captain after Vaughan was ruled out with a recurrence of an old knee injury. "We are up to the challenge.

"Obviously, it wasn't an ideal preparation to lose a game coming into the Test, not a situation that you want to be in, but we lost the warm-up game in South Africa last year and went on to win the series 2-1. It does give you a little bit of a wake-up call to make sure you do remain switched on and you work hard going into the Test."

Pakistan's captain Inzamam-ul Haq told the same news conference that he thought the two teams were level pegging: "Both teams start on an even keel, said Inzamam, whose side has won two of their three Tests at the venue in his hometown. "My young team has the ability to pull off a win and we would do our best to do that."

England (from) Marcus Trescothick (capt), Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wkt), Ashley Giles, Shaun Udal, Matthew Hoggard, Stephen Harmison, Matt Prior, James Anderson.

Pakistan (from) Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Inzamam-Ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wkt), Naved-Ul-Hasan, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Mushtaq Ahmed