It's (almost) no change for England as they surge into the third and final match of the npower Test series against Sri Lanka, which starts at Old Trafford next Thursday. The only face missing from the original squad of 14 called up for the last game is Dominic Cork, who returns to county duty with Derbyshire. For once England have the luxury of a relatively settled side, and after the crushing victory at Edgbaston there are only two question-marks about the starting line-up for Old Trafford.

Mark Butcher, who has been in fine form with a century and a 94 in the first two Tests, is struggling with a knee injury. John Crawley, who played in the first Test but was left out of the second, stands by for a satisfying return to action at the ground he left in such high dudgeon after falling out with Lancashire last year.

And in the bowling department the selectors will be weighing up whether to take a chance on Simon Jones, the Glamorgan tearaway, or retain Alex Tudor. Last week the signs were that Jones might sneak in and win his first cap, but this would seem a little unfair on Tudor, who was underbowled at Edgbaston and who has never yet played two successive Test matches.

David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, insisted that there was nothing sinister about Cork's omission. "When selecting a squad, we need to ensure that everyone has a chance to play. Given that we will be playing at Old Trafford we felt that Cork was unlikely to feature," he said. "We have spoken to him about this and assured him that he will remain in our thoughts for future selections."

Old Trafford is usually a haven for the faster bowlers, and England will certainly be hoping that the pitch served up doesn't give tooo much assistance to Lancashire old boy Muttiah Muralitharan. "We don't yet know what the Old Trafford pitch will be like for next week," said Graveney. "Although traditionally hard and with pace, we will have to wait to assess the effect of any rain which it might have had and we will select the final team accordingly."

Butcher, who is under a double cloud after his remarks about the Sri Lankan seamer Ruchira Perera's bowling action, will have a test on his knee when the squad meets up on Tuesday - but yesterday he admitted he had only a 50:50 chance of playing. If he does miss out Butcher will have keyhole surgery t rectiofy the problem, with a view to regaining full fitness in tie fr the four-Test series against India. Graveney concluded: "We will test his left knee on Tuesday morning and we will be looking to make an early decision on his fitness in fairness to both him and John Crawley."

England XIII