Old Trafford Cricket Ground pitch report: Test, ODI and T20I records and stats

For 61 years the highest Test total at Old Trafford Cricket Ground belonged to Australia, who made 656 for 8 declared in July 1964 on the back of Bob Simpson’s 311. England passed it against India in July 2025, making 669 with Joe Root scoring 150, and India batted through the whole of the fifth day to draw. That draw kept a strange record going: India have played 10 Tests in Manchester and have never won one.

Every number on this page comes from ESPNcricinfo’s full match lists for the ground, counted match by match, so the splits are ours rather than an aggregator’s summary.

Old Trafford Cricket Ground at a glance

Detail	Old Trafford
Location	Old Trafford, Greater Manchester
Opened	1857
Capacity	19,000 domestic, 26,000 for internationals
Ends	James Anderson End, Brian Statham End
Home teams	Lancashire, Manchester Super Giants (The Hundred)
First Test	10 July 1884, England v Australia
Men’s Tests	86 played, plus 2 abandoned without a ball
First ODI	24 August 1972, England v Australia
First T20I	13 June 2008, England v New Zealand

The Test count needs a footnote. The two abandoned fixtures, in 1890 and 1938, never had a ball bowled, and some lists still count them, which is why you will see different totals elsewhere. The 86 played include one Test England were not part of: Australia against South Africa in the 1912 Triangular Tournament, when Jimmy Matthews took a hat-trick in each South African innings on the same day, still the only double hat-trick in a Test. The ground’s old Pavilion End was renamed after James Anderson, Lancashire’s own, in 2017.

Old Trafford pitch report: what does the surface do?

Old Trafford has a reputation as the English Test ground that most helps spin, built on Jim Laker’s 19 wickets in 1956 and Shane Warne’s ball to Mike Gatting in 1993. The modern scorecards say it is now mainly a batting pitch for the side that gets to bat first and stay in.

Era	Tests	1st-inns avg	Bat first W-L-D
1884-1945	24	295.9	7-2-15
1946-1999	41	339.4	16-8-17
2000-2014	11	352.6	4-4-3
2015-2025	10	367.4	5-3-2

The first-innings average has gone up in every era, from 295.9 before the Second World War to 367.4 since 2015. Across all 86 Tests, the side batting first has won 32, lost 17 and drawn 37. Since 2000 that record is a much closer 9-7-5.

The toss record is odder. Since 2000, the captain winning the toss has chosen to bat 17 times in 21 Tests. Those toss-winners won seven, lost nine and drew five. Winning the toss at Old Trafford has, if anything, been a slight disadvantage this century. A big part of that is England: they have won 14, drawn five and lost two of their 21 Tests here since 2000, whoever called correctly. Their last defeat at the ground was in September 2019, when Steve Smith made 211 and Australia retained the Ashes.

The highest successful fourth-innings chase is England’s 294 for 4 against New Zealand in 2008. There have been four successful chases of 200 or more in Tests here, and England made every one of them, so a visiting side that ends up needing big runs on the last day has no precedent to point to.

Old Trafford Test records

Record	Figure	By	Match
Highest total	669	England	v India, 2025
Lowest total	58	India	v England, 1952
Highest chase	294/4	England	v New Zealand, 2008
Highest score	311	Bob Simpson	v England, 1964
Best bowling (innings)	10/53	Jim Laker	v Australia, 1956
Best bowling (match)	19/90	Jim Laker	v Australia, 1956

Laker’s 19 for 90 is still the best match return in all Test cricket, and his 10 for 53 in the second innings made him the first bowler to take all ten in a Test innings. India’s 58 in 1952 is the lowest total at the ground, and it came on the same day India were bowled out a second time for 82, with Fred Trueman taking 8 for 31 in the first innings. Simpson’s 311 took 743 balls. Ken Barrington replied with 256 in the same match, which is the second-highest score at Old Trafford.

Most Test runs and wickets at Old Trafford

Batter	Tests	Runs	Average
Joe Root	12	1128	70.50
Denis Compton	8	818	81.80
Mike Atherton	10	729	40.50
Ben Stokes	9	720	60.00
Alec Stewart	9	704	58.66

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average
Alec Bedser	7	51	13.45
Stuart Broad	11	46	20.91
James Anderson	11	38	23.57
Chris Woakes	8	38	19.50
Jim Laker	5	27	12.03

Root went past Compton’s long-standing mark and is now 310 runs clear, with 254 against Pakistan in 2016 as his best here. Anderson, who has an end named after him, took 38 Test wickets at the ground and never managed a five-wicket haul. Bedser’s 51 came in only seven Tests. For where these players stand across their whole careers, see our lists of the most runs in Test cricket and the most wickets in international cricket.

India’s record at Old Trafford

Format	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn
Tests	10	0	4	6
ODIs	12	6	6	–
T20Is	3	1	2	–

India’s ten Tests here run from 1936 to 2025 without a win. Two of the draws are famous rescues. In 1990 a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar made 119 not out in the fourth innings to save the Test, his first international hundred, after Mohammad Azharuddin’s 179 in the first innings. In 2025 India trailed by 311 on first innings, and Shubman Gill (103), Ravindra Jadeja (107 not out) and Washington Sundar (101 not out) batted them to 425 for 4 and a draw.

The white-ball record is more even. Rohit Sharma’s 140 against Pakistan at the 2019 World Cup and Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 125 to win the 2022 ODI series decider are India’s two ODI hundreds at the ground, and the 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat to New Zealand by 18 runs was also played here. In T20Is, KL Rahul’s 101 not out and Kuldeep Yadav’s 5 for 24 won the 2018 game against England by eight wickets. Kuldeep’s figures are still the best T20I bowling at Old Trafford.

Old Trafford ODI and T20I records

Record	ODI	T20I
Highest total	397/6, England v Afghanistan, 2019	304/2, England v South Africa, 2025
Lowest total	45, Canada v England, 1979	103, New Zealand v England, 2023
Highest score	189*, Viv Richards, 1984	141*, Phil Salt, 2025
Best bowling	5/14, Glenn McGrath, 1999	5/24, Kuldeep Yadav, 2018

England’s 397 for 6 in 2019 included Eoin Morgan’s 148 off 71 balls with 17 sixes, a world record for an ODI innings at the time. England’s 304 for 2 against South Africa in September 2025, with Phil Salt unbeaten on 141 from 60 balls, is one of the highest totals in all T20 internationals. Our list of the highest T20 scores has the full context, and the highest ODI totals list does the same for the 50-over game.

Format and era	Matches	1st-inns avg	Bat first W-L
ODIs, 1972-1999	28	221.3	12-16
ODIs, 2000-2014	13	204.2	5-8
ODIs, 2015-2022	15	266.0	10-5
T20Is, 2008-2026	12	177.3	4-8

The two white-ball formats point in opposite directions. In ODIs the side batting first is 27-29 overall but has won 10 of 15 since 2015, with the average first innings now 266.0. In T20Is the chasing side has won eight of the 12 completed games, and the three biggest successful chases there all belong to England.

Old Trafford FAQs

What is the highest Test score at Old Trafford? England’s 669 against India in July 2025. It beat Australia’s 656 for 8 declared from 1964, which had stood as the ground record for 61 years.

Is Old Trafford a spin-friendly pitch? It has the reputation, mostly because of Laker in 1956 and Warne in 1993. The recent Test numbers show a ground where first-innings totals keep rising, and four of the five leading Test wicket-takers at the ground are seamers. Laker is the exception.

Have India ever won a Test at Old Trafford? No. India have played 10 Tests there, losing four and drawing six, most recently the 2025 draw.

How many people does Old Trafford hold? About 26,000 for international matches and 19,000 for domestic games.

For more grounds, our Melbourne Cricket Ground and SCG pages use the same method.

Featured photo: Twitter/ICC

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