Sajid Mah-mood will perform in front of a divided family if he fulfils a career ambition by playing for England in tomorrow's second npower Test match against Pakistan at Old Trafford.

Born and raised in Bolton, only 15 miles from Old Trafford, Mahmood has played his entire career at the ground and has long dreamed of playing there for England.

But if he does make his third Test appearance tomorrow, it will provoke plenty of family discussion against Pakistan, where his family originated before his mother and father emigrated to England in the 1970s.

The 24-year-old said: "It would be a dream come true for me to play for England at Old Trafford, having played all my professional career here. To wear an England shirt and play a Test here would be fantastic. I know the place pretty well."

The facilities will be familiar, as will many of the faces in the crowd with large sections of his close family expected to attend during the five days to watch him perform.

Some members of the family may have divided loyalties, having traditionally followed Pakistan before Sajid's breakthrough into the England ranks.

He said: "It's a little bit weird because my parents are from Pakistan, but I've told them they've got to support England or they won't be getting a ticket!

"It will be good to play against Pakistan and do well against them. When I was really young, about eight or nine, I used to support Pakistan because I was brought up like that.

"My family would say to me that, because we came from Pakistan, I had to support Pakistan, that was the way I was brought up.

"But from the age of around 13 or 14 and I watched England play, I wanted to be on that stage and play for England and ever since then I've supported England.

"I've got quite a lot of family coming down, so it would be good if I got a chance to play for England in front of them."

Mahmood's chances of playing have been boosted by yet another injury, this time with Durham seamer Liam Plunkett being ruled out for the next two Tests with a left side strain.

Plunkett sustained the injury playing for Durham against West Indies A last weekend, a match he was given permission to play in to give him batting practice. That leaves Mahmood and Gloucestershire seamer Jon Lewis battling for the final seamer's spot.

Should Mahmood be given the nod, it would also go some way towards making amends for his missing out on playing at Old Traf-ford for England in last month's one-day international against Sri Lanka.

Having conceded 80 runs in only seven overs in the previous match at the Oval, Mahmood sat out the defeat. He said: "I would have liked to have played on my home ground in a one-day international but I didn't and I didn't let it get to me - I just carried on doing my thing.

"I know I didn't bowl too well but I didn't really think about it. I have been working hard with Kevin Shine and Mike Watkinson at Lancashire as well and it's out of my system now.

"Quite a lot of the bowlers didn't bowl too well during that series and I still knew what I could do, so it didn't really dent my confidence at all."

He added: "All the time I've spent with England had been a massive learning curve. Being around the players and watching how they go about things has been good for me to learn about how I need to do things. That has especially been so talking to players like Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard on the bowling side of things and I've learnt quite a lot now."