Ashes 2019 4th Test venue: Old Trafford

Australia had won comfortably at Edgbaston, but England came back strongly at Lord’s till their effort was thwarted by rain. Then Ben Stokes played an innings in a generation to help England level the series. The teams will now move to Old Trafford, the oldest English Test venue outside London, for the fourth Test.

Old Trafford, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club, has been for long the main ground in North England. While the ground has witnessed immortal performances by spinners, starting with Jim Laker’s 19-wicket feat in 1956 and Shane Warne’s ball of the century, the county’s favourite sons – Brian Statham and James Anderson – have both been fast bowlers. Unfortunately, Anderson will not feature in the Test (or the remainder of the series).

Australia have played only twice here this millennium and have drawn both. They were 9 down in the fourth innings in 2005 before Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath batted for 4 overs to save the Test. And in 2013, they set England 332, but only 20.3 overs of play was possible in the fourth innings.

Here are the numbers for Old Trafford in this century:

Old Trafford	All	England	Australia	Ashes
Tests	13	13	2	2
Runs/90 overs	238	299	325	313
4s/90 overs	38.5	33.7	35.5	34.2
6s/90 overs	1.7	1.4	1.4	2.0
50+ scores/Test	8.15	3.46	3.50	7.50
100s/Test	2.62	1.31	1.00	2.50
SR (B/W)	60.4	50.8	69.3	69.8
5WIs/Test	1.23	0.85	0.50	1.50
10WMs/Test	0.15	0.15	0.00	0.00