DURHAM'S Paul Collingwood will have what might be his final chance to establish himself as a Test player in Lahore over the next five days.

The middle-order batsman has been drafted into the team for the third Test against Pakistan to fill the vacancy caused by Andrew Strauss' return to England for the birth of his first child.

Skipper Michael Vaughan will move up to open the batting, and Collingwood is expected to bat at No 4 with Kevin Pietersen at five.

There could also be a Test debut for his Durham team-mate Liam Plunkett.

Either James Anderson or Plunkett will step in should England leave out off-spinner Shaun Udal and play an extra seamer.

''I am sure whoever comes in will be trying to make sure they take their opportunity,'' said Vaughan, who is confident his one-off jump back up to the top of the batting order is the best option for England.

''I must stress it is only for this game. Straussy will come straight back in for the India series and I'll go back to number three.

''But I've had a lot of success opening and I hope there'll be some more this week.''

The absence of Vaughan through injury allowed Collingwood to make his fourth Test appearance in the defeat at Multan, after which seasoned observers like Geoff Boycott offered the opinion that he lacked Test class.

Collingwood is determined to prove them wrong, but unless he seizes his chance now he will again be relying on injuries to give him a chance of getting into the side.

Vaughan is calling on his team to make up for their first Test disappointment by winning this match to draw the series.

The captain acknowledges England ought to be in the driving seat and on the verge of a seventh series victory as they approach the last Test of three, starting at the Gaddafi Stadium today.

Instead, they find themselves 1-0 down after blowing a winning position on the last day of the first Test in Multan.

They were then unable to force a result in Faisalabad and need a victory in awkward circumstances to protect their long, unbeaten record.

''It's a big game for us all, because we are 1-0 down and we haven't lost a series for two-and-half years,'' said Vaughan.

''We've played some good cricket; we've had to play catch-up cricket because we've lost both tosses. In Multan we played a very good game and should really have won.''

The same chance did not come England's way in the second Test, although they battled hard to claw back the disadvantage of having to bat second for the second match running.

''In Faisalabad we did well again, but maybe on the fourth afternoon one or two things didn't quite go our way when we were getting near to creating an opportunity to win the game,'' Vaughan recalled.

''If we can keep just pushing ourselves a little bit further every game - which we have done so far - I'm sure if we get another opportunity to win we'll take it.''

Vaughan may not return for the one-day leg of this tour once he receives expert advice on his long-standing cartilage problem after flying back to England for the birth of his second child. It all means he has one last mission to focus on at the end of what has, as expected, been a challenging series for his team.

''We have proved over the first two Tests that if you bowl with good disciplines you can certainly put Pakistan batsmen under quite a lot of pressure,'' he said.

Vaughan hopes to have Ashley Giles by his side as a frontline slow-bowling option.

Giles is also to fly home after this Test to have surgery on his hip cartilage injury.

But he has made himself available to bowl through the pain barrier over the next five days as long as England are prepared to gamble on his fitness.

Late starts are scheduled, and early finishes are likely if yesterday's early-afternoon gloom is any guide.

''Ashley is all right but he's having a good, long bowl in the nets today to see how he comes through,'' said Vaughan.

''If you do decide to go in with one spinner you have to make sure he can play a full part.''

Teams for third Test:

England (from): M Trescothick, M Vaughan (captain), I Bell, K Pietersen, P Collingwood, A Flintoff, G Jones (wkt), A Giles, M Hoggard, S Harmison, L Plunkett, J Anderson.

Pakistan (from): S Butt, S Malik, Hasan Raza, Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), M Yousuf, A Kamal, K Akmal (wkt), R Naved-ul-Hasan, D Kaneria, M Sami, S Akhtar, M Asif.