Austin ready to shift gears

Bowling medium-paced cutters in a practice game against Hampshire at Southampton, he opened with an eight-over spell costing eight runs and earning him two wickets. One of them was Robin Smith, the former England batsman, the ball darting in and trapping him leg before.

It wasn’t frightening, like Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar, nor infernally unplayable, like Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne. It was neat, naggingly accurate, very English and just the boost his team needed after a difficult week.

A few days ago, Pakistan coach Mushtaq Mohammad said it was laughable that England should resort to 30-somethings rather than bring on their youngsters.

Austin is 32 and a bits-and-pieces player, offering seam bowling perfectly atuned to the local conditions and useful lower-order batting.

He has played just four One-day internationals and done little of note.

Before this winter and his selection for the England World Cup squad, he would spend the off season delivering beds, working in a butcher’s shop or doing a bit of carpet-fitting.

Yet, he is revered by the Old Trafford faithful as one of them, a man close to his roots and unchanged by his (limited) brush with stardom.

“I still meet the same lads for a pint in the pub that I did 12, 15 years ago,” he says, while conceding that he is “quite well known on the social side of our team as well”.

He admits he is not a fitness fanatic, even now that he has England’s back-up team of nutritionists and physiotherapists to consult.

“I think they’ve washed their hands off me,” he says. But he is a solid fielder with a good pair of hands.

Significantly, Wasim Akram of Pakistan, Austin’s Lancashire team-mate, holds him in high regard, saying he is a perfect One-day “death bowler” — especially in English conditions. Laughable? The man from Hasslingden may yet have the last laugh.