| GEO Sports | England win toss and bat against Pakistan | Updated at: 1505 PST, Wednesday, August 18, 2010
 LONDON: England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat against Pakistan in the third Test at The Oval here on Wednesday.
England, who've won six Tests in a row, were unchanged from the side that had put them 2-0 up in this four-match series after victories by 354 runs at Trent Bridge and nine wickets at Edgbaston.
But Pakistan made four changes from the side that played at Edgbaston.
They recalled Yasir Hameed, a 32-year-old batsman, for his first Test in three years.
Hameed played the last of his 23 Tests against India in Bangalore in 2007, and he was down to open the innings on Wednesday.
Also selected, after Pakistan were dismissed for record low scores against England of 80 and 72 at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston respectively, was former captain Mohamad Yousuf, who averages 70 against England.
Third in Pakistan's all-time list of Test run-scorers, Yousuf was initially omitted from the squad having been handed an indefinite ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board after captaining the side on their winless tour of Australia concluded earlier this year.
He was recalled ahead of the Edgbaston Test but was not selected after only arriving in England the day before the match.
Struggling top-order batsmen Umar Amin and Shoaib Malik made way for Hameed and Yousuf.
Pakistan's other two changes are injury-enforced with Kamran Akmal back in the side after Zulqarnain Haider, who made a gutsy 80 on debut at Edgbaston, was ruled out with a fractured finger suffered in the second Test.
That match also saw seamer Umar Gul sustain a series-ending hamstring injury and his place was taken by Wahab Riaz, making his Test debut.
This was Pakistan's first Test at The Oval since their controversial match against England here four years ago when they became the first side in history to forfeit a Test when they refused to take the field after being penalised for ball-tampering.
Teams
England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn
Pakistan: Salman Butt (captain), Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Yousuf, Yasir Hameed,, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Aamer, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Asif
Umpires: Steve Davis (AUS) and Tony Hill (NZ), TV umpire: Billy Bowden (NZ)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SL) |  | | | |
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