MELBOURNE: Pakistan spearhead Mohammad Amir is expected to play the Boxing Day Test against Australia despite stiffness and a bruised thigh, officials said Thursday. 

The left-arm seamer, who completed a five-year ban for spot-fixing last year, left the field during the first Brisbane Test on a motorised stretcher after falling on the Gabba turf.

He appeared in agony but returned a short time later and continued to bowl. Amir was also hit on the thigh by a Mitchell Starc full toss.

"There's quite a bit of bruising on his thigh," Pakistan batting coach Grant Flower told reporters. "He's feeling a bit stiff but he's all right."

Flower said he expected the team to field the same bowling attack in Melbourne that narrowly lost the gripping first Test by just 39 runs. "I think the guys are fit enough to go through.

I think our attack would probably be the same," he said. "It's just one of those things that we've had for a while, we don't have that all-rounder batsman, batsman-bowler. But it's one of those things so the guys will just have to get through it."

-AFP