Injury forces Yasir Shah, Azhar Ali and Steve Finn out of the 1st Test

Injury forces Yasir Shah, Azhar Ali and Steve Finn out of the 1st Test: The 1st Test of the 3-match Test series between Pakistan and England will take place at Abu Dhabi. As they approach the all important series, both teams have started to lose their top performers to injuries.

Pakistan has suffered two major blows which will affect their strategy against England and will force them to switch to Plan B even before the start.

The first player to be ruled out was Pakistan’s Azhar Ali who suffered a toe injury against Zimbabwe and failed to recover on time. And was thus deemed unfit.

Pakistan received another bad news when Yasir Shah suffered a back injury during a practice session. The match-winning leg- spinner is unlikely to play the 1^st Test. This news is more worrying for Pakistan as they have no reserve spinner with them. It is an unforeseen injury as he tumbled down while trying to pick up the ball that was hit back towards him in the nets.

The touring England team also suffered a setback today, as their express pacer Steve Finn, who was bowling really well in the 2-day tour matches unexpectedly suffered a stress injury to his left foot owing to which he has been ruled out of the 1st Test.

Finn was fighting with Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett for the final place in the pace attack alongside James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

It is quite a task ahead of both the teams now to find suitable replacements for the 3 key players. While this doesn’t look tough for England, the Pakistan management will have to dig in to find out the right guy to fill-in for Shah.

Misbah reports that "key player" Shah suffered a back spasm. Admits it would be a big blow but hopes he'll be okay. pic.twitter.com/lQBeU8vU96

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 12, 2015

Yasir shah is injured…back issues
hope it's not a serious injury#PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/apwLmWiAq1

— Jasveer Singh Kharra (@imjsk27) October 12, 2015