England captain Alastair Cook looks ahead to the first test with Pakistan in Abu Dhabi which starts on Tuesday (13th October) with fast bowler Steven Finn having been ruled out due to a foot injury.

Script: SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (on the pressure and excitement ahead of the series)

"I'm really excited about what's going to happen. We've got lots of options in our side, in our squad, to go for and we've got a side who is willing to take on that challenge. So I can't wait for tomorrow just to come and we can get going. We understand the pressures of playing subcontinent cricket, especially in these conditions as well. They're a lot slower paced games and you can lose games of cricket in a short space of time but you can also do a lot of good work, you have to do a lot of good work over a long period as well to win games and the guys are prepared for that."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (on losing the 2012 series here 3-0)

"It's a different side with the players as well. But the lessons, I thought we kind of learnt them a little bit in the one day series after (the 2012 series). When you're forced to play a little bit more positively, certainly in one day cricket, you can put the pressure back on the opposition. That's the way we want to play. It's not going to be quite crash bang wallop like it was in the summer, because of the natural pace of this game, but you still want people to be playing positively."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (on spinner Adil Rashid )

"Yes there will probably be some bad balls along the way, but he can also bowl some absolute jaffas and be a wicket taking threat and I think that's one thing we do have in this squad, we could go in with four seamers, two spinners and Rooty (Joe Root) as well so you have lots of options. We can change it up and that is quite exciting."