Michael Vaughan emerged unscathed from his Ashes injury scare and backed his under-fire England team to bounce back strongly in the second Test against Australia at Edgbaston.

The England captain provided the perfect fillip for the England dressing room on the eve of the second Test by shrugging off a painful blow on his right elbow from Chris Tremlett to pass himself fit after X-rays had diagnosed heavy bruising.

His 20-minute examination in the nets was not without incident and he survived another painful blow, this time to his right hand from a rising Steve Harmison delivery, but he emerged smiling and ready to inspire his side to a better display than they produced in the 239-run opening-Test defeat at Lord's.

He will be hoping his availability will lift a side desperately in need of inspiration and motivation after a week of inquests when they have been the butt of criticism following their Lord's capitulation.

Vaughan claims to have been unaware of the criticism until the end of last week, but he believes it can act as an inspiration, as well as a distraction to his squad, as they prepare for back-to-back Tests at Edgbaston and Old Trafford.

''I didn't realise there was that much criticism flying around until Friday of last week,'' said Vaughan.

''I didn't read too much and I wasn't watching television. When you've got a little girl it's very difficult to sit down and watch television when you're playing with her all day.

''People react in different ways and it's an individual way of reacting to criticism. You also have to accept sometimes that if you play badly you're going to get some criticism.

''If you play well, as we could do this week, we will accept our praise. It's important we get our performance levels right and control what we can control and that's the way we play.

''We can't control what people are going to say and what someone else is going to write, but we can control our performance.

''I enjoy being the captain and over the last couple of years, myself and the team have had a lot of praise and we have accepted that; if you have a bad week and you play badly, you have to accept the criticism.''

The player who has suffered the brunt of the criticism has been left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who has publicly complained all week at his treatment from the media, but Vaughan believes he is ready to focus again on his cricket.

Giles helped win the game against West Indies at Edgbaston a year ago, when he claimed a match haul of nine wickets and claimed the prized scalp of Brian Lara as his 100th Test victim.

''I've only seen Ashley since Tuesday and he has been good at practice over the last two days,'' said Vaughan. ''He's been a fantastic performer for us over the last year.

''Individuals always take a little bit more stick than others, but Ashley has been a fantastic performer.

''He's a huge member of our team and without him in the last year we wouldn't have won a lot of the games so he'll continue to be a big player for us.''

Warwickshire's premier spinner looks almost certain to play in an unchanged line-up after England took the surprise decision to release Durham all-rounder Paul Collingwood just 48 hours after adding him to the squad to give them greater options on a damp Edgbaston wicket still affected by last week's tornado.

If England do keep faith with the same line-up it will be the first time since the War they have named an unchanged team in the first two Tests of a series after losing the opener and represents a major vote of confidence from the selectors.

''We do enjoy playing at Edgbaston, we've had some good results here and we enjoy the crowd and the atmosphere,'' stressed Vaughan.

''I thought we started the Test match at Lord's very well and for a day and a half we were good and then Australia took the game away from us. We've got to make sure we keep our performance levels up for a sustained period of play.''

Vaughan will also be hoping his one-on-one sessions with coach Duncan Fletcher this week, which resulted in a Sunday century for Yorkshire against Kent, can help him reproduce his form at Test level having scored just seven runs at Lord's.

''I enjoyed the week and worked hard with Duncan,'' he added. ''I had a bit of relaxation time as well, but I worked really hard with Duncan on the Wednesday and the Thursday and I felt good going into Sunday's game.

''I felt my game was in decent order and I played quite nicely. It's nice to score a few runs and get a hundred for your county.

''I always think it's important when you go back to the county to try to perform and try to help them win a game. We didn't win but on a personal basis I was happy with my performance.''