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Old Trafford currently resembles something from The Land That Time Forgot. The outfield, mottled and scarred, does little for its status as a Test match venue, the old H Stand has been removed, rather like a huge tooth, and the pavilion clock is 25 minutes slow. Is this famous ground, ancient and dumb, offering its judgment of English cricket?

England were more than 25 minutes behind the clock at Lord's. They were a whole day behind New Zealand who, by winning inside four days, squared the series. Now, even without Simon Doull, their swing bowler, who missed that game and has gone home, they are ready to add another victory in the third Test, that starts in Manchester this morning. Freshly confident, they have named an unchanged side.

England, as expected, do not have that option. Nasser Hussain, their captain, abandoned all hope of playing after testing his broken finger yesterday morning in the briefest of net sessions. ``If I had been playing for Essex I might have taken a gamble,'' said Hussain. ``But if I had played in a Test, and done some further damage, it wouldn't have been very professional.''

Hussain's position, at first wicket down, will be filled by Alec Stewart, who he succeeded as captain two months ago. Stewart's opening position had already been granted to Michael Atherton, and Hussain confirmed yesterday that Graeme Hick, making his eighth return to the side, will bat at No 5, above Mark Ramprakash.

At a stroke, though, England are poorer. Despite the return of Atherton to restore some stability to the batting - and, for all the hurrahs, he owes them a few runs - any team must be weaker for the absence of their captain, particularly one who is only two games into the job and keen to leave his mark. It is bad luck on Hussain, who should now return for the final Test at the Oval in a fortnight.

Mark Butcher, the Surrey opening batsman, takes over with Hussain's blessing. ``Butch will make the decisions,'' he stressed. ``It is irrelevant what anybody on the boundary thinks. The man in the middle is the one who counts. I will advise him but the captain is always the person who should take the decisions.''

Instead, Hussain will use this Test match as an opportunity to talk directly with Duncan Fletcher, the Glamorgan coach, who takes up his England post in October, before the tour to South Africa. He and Fletcher have much to discuss, and the sooner they talk openly about the team's problems the better.

Fletcher is expected to arrive on Saturday, by which time Glamorgan's championship match at the Oval may have run its course after the way the Welshmen capitulated yesterday. There should still be cricket left in the Test, however, unless the pitch plays more wickedly than Peter Marron, the groundsman, has led people to believe.

The track for last year's Test against South Africa, low and ponderously slow, made the cricket hard to watch until England were forced to bat through the final day and a half to save the match, which introduced a welcome touch of drama. This pitch is also expected to be slow, and to take spin sooner rather than later.

``It looks a 'two-spinner' pitch to me, thin and bare at the ends,'' said Hussain. Unless they change their minds this morning, the selectors will pair Peter Such, the Essex off-spinner, with Phil Tufnell, and leave out two of the four quick bowlers. It is likely that Andrew Caddick will share the new ball with Dean Headley, and that Butcher will add the third seamer's responsibilities to his expanding portfolio.

It could be a bumpy ride for Butcher but if any English cricketer is up to the job, however temporary, it is he. Popular among his peers, who regard him as a team man, he comes across as a strong type who will not readily bend the knee. Yesterday he confirmed, sotto voce, that England will not go meekly into this match.

If that means they will match the tourists syllable for syllable in a shouting contest they will soon learn the error of their ways. Peter van der Merwe, the match referee, has addressed Hussain and David Graveney, the England manager, to make clear his concern at the way matters threatened to get out of hand at Lord's. Other referees may well have taken a less tolerant view of some of the behaviour, and the fact that New Zealand were responsible for eight-tenths of it means not a jot. It looks out of place at any time, on any field anywhere.

Though he would not spell it out publicly, Hussain has left his batsmen in no doubt of what they can expect if they fail here. After backing the top six as the best players available he challenged them to bat properly together.

``When you are 100 or 150 runs behind in a Test match you don't know whether to stick or twist,'' he said. That was certainly true of the horror show at Lord's.

The players are on trial at Old Trafford, standing in the dock before the jury of public opinion. They cannot expect the benefit of any doubt. Stand upright, gentlemen, and tell the truth. Your lives depend upon it.

England (probable): *M A Butcher, M A Atherton, A J Stewart, G P Thorpe, G A Hick, M R Ramprakash, -C M W Read, A R Caddick, D W Headley, P C R Tufnell, P M Such.

New Zealand: M J Horne, M D Bell, *S P Fleming, N J Astle, C D McMillan, R G Twose, C L Cairns, -A C Parore, D J Nash, D L Vettori, G I Allott.