For Monty Panesar, Lord’s was a disappointment. By contrast, Old Trafford has been a revelation. Despite his youth and relative inexperience he has always seemed to be a man under pressure, not least from the coach of the national side, who has found it hard to conceal his concerns over the slow left-armer’s shortcomings in the field. With his performances in both innings of this Test he has done much to relieve that pressure. And he has gone a long way towards claiming the spinner’s spot in this England team as his own, no doubt to the dismay of Ashley Giles, whom he replaced and who is still in rehabilitation after his hip problems.

One notable difference at Old Trafford has been that Andrew Strauss, who has had an excellent game as captain, has been prepared to entrust Monty with more work, getting him into the attack earlier than we have seen before and then letting him get on with his job. It has helped, of course, that in the first innings Steve Harmison was back on top form, making the captain’s job even easier.

But the Durham man, despite grabbing the bulk of the headlines for himself, was quick to praise Panesar for his part in Pakistan’s first-innings shambles, where he both picked up three important wickets and kept control while Harmison did the main damage at the other end.

Considering that Danish Kaneria got very little out of this pitch, it was fascinating to see how much turn Panesar extracted both on the first day and yesterday, not just from the rough but especially from the main part of the pitch. With Imran Farhat the only left-hander to worry about, Panesar was going to be bowling for the majority of the time round the wicket to the right-handers. As it happened, neither proposition proved to be a problem.

When Farhat decided to play his shots against the ball turning from the rough it was all that the bowler needed to see. For the left-hander judgment of length is absolutely crucial in those circumstances and sadly for Farhat, that judgment was lacking. Once or twice he dabbled with danger, trying to drive when the ball was not full enough, and he was unable to control the shot that brought his downfall simply because he was again guilty of being over-ambitious.

The very next ball was near-perfect, drawing the new batsman, Mohammad Yousuf, into a forward defensive shot that was unable to cover the turn. Any tape on the edge of the bat and Yousuf might have made contact. And even though Panesar had to wait a little longer to claim his man the seeds of doubt were sown.

The stumping that dismissed Yousuf was a sharp one and it further emphasised the improvement in Geraint Jones’s keeping, unfortunately accompanied by a slump in his batting. It was the ideal start to the afternoon session for both men and Panesar had dismissed one of the world’s best players of spin for the second time in the match. The wicket of Inzamam-ul-Haq, also a master of spin, was another feather in his cap, even if the gods were smiling on Panesar at the time, with the catch coming off Inzy’s boot.

But three out of the top four at that stage is the most encouraging testament to his abilities.

His strengths are a beautifully rhythmic action, reminiscent of the great Bishen Bedi, and consistent accuracy. In India, where he made his debut earlier this year, we were impressed by that accuracy on pitches that were largely bland until he found himself bowling with Shaun Udal on a turner in Bombay.

Against Sri Lanka in the first series of this summer he picked up his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket but word had it before the Lord’s Test against Pakistan that Duncan Fletcher was still not happy with the overall “package” offered by Panesar. The England coach is well known to be keen on players who can give him something from every aspect of their game but even he must have been swayed now by what he has seen at Old Trafford.

After the first innings Panesar revealed that he had made a couple of minor technical tweaks to his action after Lord’s and more importantly that he had decided to bowl slightly quicker on the Old Trafford pitch. To get the pace right for a particular pitch is always an important part of the equation and judging by yesterday’s figures he got that spot on.

He does not have a doosra as such, although that need not count against him. We are in an era where spinners are expected to have extra tricks in their repertoires. But with irregular turn, like we saw yesterday, the delivery that goes on with the arm — old fashioned as it might seem — still has merit, as Younis Khan will testify.

Looking ahead, the future is certainly bright for Panesar. His big challenge will come in Australia this winter where the pressure on the entire England team will rise to new levels and where the home crowds will be quick to seize on any signs of weakness. By the look of it, he has the capacity to cope with them but he will have to be wary of an Australian batting force that will be intent on making life as hard as possible for him.