Woolmer upbeat over Rana

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan is recovering well from a groin injury © Getty Images

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is hopeful seam bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will play some part in the Test series against England.

But Woolmer admitted Rana, who impressed for Sussex this summer before picking up a groin injury, has little chance of featuring in the first Test at Lord's that starts a week on Thursday.

Naved made a brief appearance as a substitute fielder during the final day of Pakistan's match against Leicestershire at Grace Road and then had a workout during the lunch interval.

Woolmer said: "At the moment he is pain-free and making good progress. It is encouraging but I don't want to pre-empt anything but so far things are going to plan.

"We hope to get him up to full speed on Thursday when he will have a fitness test at Canterbury and then we will see where we are with him.

"At the moment he is coming through okay but I'm pretty sure he won't make the first Test. He could play against Northamptonshire in the match after that."

Woolmer also had good news about his other injured fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who has been out for several months with a stress fracture of his shin.

"He has had another scan and once we get the results of that we might get him over here in a bid to get him fit and see where we go from there," Woolmer said.

Shoaib Malik hit Pakistan's first century of the tour in the eight-wicket win at Grace Road, his unbeaten 110 seeing them cruise to their victory target of 203 with 15 overs to spare.

Malik and Imran Farhat staked their claims for the first Test, the latter smashing 31 off 25 balls.

"I was very happy with our performance in this match against Leicestershire," Woolmer added.

"We played very well, with the bowlers getting plenty of overs in and all our top six batsmen getting some runs. You can't ask for more than that.

"The game was played in a good spirit and we had decided before the match that it would be an old style three-day game with both sides declaring if necessary to produce a finish.

"From our point of view, it is important to get people into form because that breeds confidence, although there is a long way to go yet.

"We now face England A on Thursday and we will have a full side out for that to give them a good run."