Vaughan tells bowlers to deliver at theatre of seams at Old Trafford

England’s re-enactment of Wednesday night’s Champions League Final drama in Moscow during fielding practice was a light-hearted prelude to today’s second npower Test, with ‘Chelsea’ again being vanquished thanks to the cool finishing of
England’s Manchester-born captain. What is far more serious, however, is the very real threat to the Test future of one of the country’s most historic grounds.

Chairman of the bored: Chris Tremlett can watch the action from the comfort of his own seat after being left out by England

The match starting on Friday against New Zealand will be the last Test at Old Trafford for at least four years, as the venue — the scene of Jim Laker’s 19 wickets and Sir Ian Botham’s greatest 1981 Ashes innings — is squeezed out by the development of new grounds such as Hampshire’s Rose Bowl and the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, which can guarantee the ECB bigger profits.

Not only is this a huge blow to one of the country’s traditional hotbeds of cricketing interest, but it is also bad news for an England side who have won four of their last five Tests at Old Trafford and for spectators who are treated to cricket played on what Vaughan believes is the best wicket in England.

"We feel very comfortable here as a team and the wicket is usually a very good one," said Vaughan, whose fragile body will surely have stopped him playing by the earliest time Test cricket could return to Manchester, in 2012.

"It is a good place to play attacking cricket. If you bowl with pace, you’ll create opportunities with swing and reverse swing and if you spin the ball and bowl with flight and guile you’ll get a lot out of the wicket, too. But if you’re a good batsman, certainly on the back foot, you will have the chance to go out and get a big score.

"I love playing here and it’s a place where I’ve had a lot of success for both England and Yorkshire, but it’s not my job to pick the grounds that we play on.

"Our record here is excellent and the crowd are always very good — they will be even better now Manchester United have won the European Cup. We hope to produce a performance that will enable us to go one up on Monday or Tuesday."

The fact that Old Trafford is hardly the most aesthetically pleasing of England’s Test grounds — tired and shabby is a more apt description — does not do anything for its cause, but the proposed £70million redevelopment means that it should look more like a stadium which complements the excellence of its square by the time the ECB’s Major Match Group decide where England will play in 2012.

In the meantime, the Lancashire public must be satisfied with limited overs international cricket.

Just like that: coach Peter Moores shares a joke with Kevin Pietersen

Groundsman Peter Marron’s pitch again looks hard and fast, but England have resisted the temptation to pick Chris Tremlett on a surface that looks perfect for his height and bounce and instead yesterday named an unchanged side for the fourth
consecutive Test.

It is this continuity and stability which underpinned England’s Ashes success and what they aim to replicate in the build-up to next year’s visit by the Australians. Clearly Vaughan is banking on an England side much changed since 2005 finally maturing and ridding itself of the inconsistency that was still apparent in the drawn first Test at Lord’s.

"We thought about going with Tremlett but we want to give our young bowlers another crack," said Vaughan.

"They all bowled well in spells at Lord’s and all of them should bowl well on this kind of wicket. It is another opportunity for them to prove what they’re made of, but they know they will have to bowl with a decent amount of gas.

"Our bowlers will have to be up with the pace in every spell because if you trundle up here and bowl at 80 or 81 miles per hour, you can find yourself going all round the park."

To that end, England’s three seamers will have to be at their quickest to justify the faith England have placed in them. Jimmy Anderson was the fastest at Lord’s, while Ryan
Sidebottom should be able to swing the ball here and the bounce that could have come from Tremlett or Steve Harmison will instead be entrusted to Stuart Broad. Do not be surprised if Monty Panesar, a match-winner at Old Trafford in the last two years, is among the wickets again.

More pertinent to the outcome, however, will be the ability of England’s top six to finally produce the goods as a unit, rather than as individuals who have done enough to keep their place but not enough to play decisive roles in Test victories.

Vaughan wants this Test to be the start of England consistently compiling first innings scores in excess of 400. While he and the restored opening partnership of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss did their job at Lord’s, the onus is on Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and the out-of-form Paul Collingwood to cash in against a New Zealand attack which could rely heavily on captain Daniel Vettori.

Collingwood is desperately short of runs and scratched around to little effect in the draw at Lord’s, but he was a star in the penalty shoot-out, making one save for the ‘Manchester United’ team that Edwin van der Sar would have been proud of.

Now the England one-day captain must show that the character which has taken him such a long way in the game remains intact.