It remains to be seen whether the Pakistan team selection, which before play had raised more eyebrows than hopes, was inspired rather than desperate but so far only one of their big calls has been tested and Kamran Ghulam was everything they could have hoped.
The debutant enjoyed the dreamiest of introductions to Test cricket despite coming to the crease in a situation closer to a nightmare, his side reeling at 19 for two. The words slowly and surely could have been paired with his innings in mind, and he eventually fell towards the close, having scored 118 and helped his side to end the opening day on 259 for five.
Ghulam’s selection came after an outstanding season in domestic first‑class cricket, a couple of excellent innings in the recent one‑day President’s Cup, an English summer partly spent playing for Hoylandswaine in the Huddersfield League (he was dismissed once in six innings and averaged 244) and the complete collapse in the form of the former Pakistan captain and national hero, Babar Azam. The 29-year-old Ghulam has plenty of experience but he also had the largest possible shoes to fill, and the match situation as he strapped on his pads cannot have helped his nerves, but there was no sign of them as he settled into his work. His first 15 balls brought four singles and a lot of neat defensive work; he sent his 16th down the ground for six.
That was an exception in an innings that prioritised safety over ambition. His patience was particularly impressive, and in 224 balls at the crease it let him down only twice: once when, after a dozen dot balls in succession, he rushed at Leach and miscued the ball just beyond the reach of Ben Duckett at mid-wicket, and again when, after a run of 11 dots broken only by a single, he rushed at Bashir – a tired, foolish and instantly regretted decision – and was bowled.
With Saim Ayub, Ghulam put on 149 for the third wicket, stabilising Pakistan after those early wobbles. As so frequently of late one opener fell cheaply and the other went big: in the first innings of the opening Test Ayub fell for four and Abdullah Shafique scored a century; here Shafique managed only seven and Ayub went on to get a smart 77, even if he survived a couple of times when the ball deflected off edge or glove and just out of a fielder’s reach.
If Shan Masood also failed with the bat he at least succeeded in what was probably his most important role. The day started with what in the circumstances was a crucial, potentially career-saving toss for Pakistan’s captain, given that his team’s gameplan was largely reliant on them enjoying the best batting conditions at the match’s start and the best spin-bowling conditions at its end. As the coin arced through the air you could imagine his dread at the prospect of England batting first on a still-placid pitch against a collection of part-time or backup spinners and a single, third-choice seamer, but as last week it fell in his favour; this time they had to make it count.
Playing, controversially, on the same pitch as that used for the first Test, England started with five overs of seam before switching to spin. Jack Leach quickly rewarded that decision, becoming the first English spinner to take two wickets in the first 10 overs of a Test since 1889. But contrary to expectations there was life here for fast bowlers: midway through the afternoon Ben Stokes bowled for the first time, and soon England’s seamers had detected the scent of reverse swing and were following it excitedly, like a more athletic, monochromatically clad version of the Bisto Kids.
On this pitch, selected and prepared specifically to assist spinners, England bowled 15 consecutive overs of seam, took two wickets and conceded only 40 runs, even though for most of that time half a dozen fielders were spread in an intimidating parabola around the batter, leaving wide expanses of empty grass behind them.
“We’ve seen a couple scuttle low but I think on the whole the pitch has been OK,” said the England fast bowler Matt Potts. “It’s on the slow side but it’s been all right. I think there’s still value for seam bowling on that pitch but we’ll have to see how the game pans out.”
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In the process they fought their way back into a contest after a long period when the batters scored slowly but seemed comfortable. It was Stokes’s five-over spell that showed the way, but Potts and Brydon Carse who took the wickets. Shortly before tea Ayub blundered straight into England’s trap, rewarding Potts’s precision by lifting a catch to Stokes in that fielding umbrella. Then shortly after the interval Carse got one to move gently away and kiss Saud Shakeel’s edge.
That brought Mohammad Rizwan to the crease for an innings that started in bizarre and extraordinarily ugly style. Aside from one delicious sweep off Leach, for at least his first 50 balls Rizwan, who is 32 and came into his 34th Test with a batting average of 42.66, displayed little evidence that he had any idea what to do with the odd-shaped stick he was holding.
Beyond the pitch’s mixed messages the biggest puzzle of the day was how Rizwan survived this period, though he should not have done: it took him 20 balls to score a run and then he edged his 22nd through to Smith, contact only the bowler heard. Potts sought support for a review but received little, and Stokes shook his head not just then but again moments later when the big screen showed that it would have been successful. “It’s never nice, little things like that,” said Potts, “but we’ve created chances throughout the day and we’ll create chances tomorrow as well.”