If Joe Root could have scripted the perfect start to his full-time return to the England captaincy, it might have looked something like this.
Tougher tasks lie ahead than bowling first under glowering northern skies against a Pakistan batting line-up devoid of form and confidence, but this was a day English cricket desperately needed after the chaos that has engulfed it.
Ollie Robinson settled nerves by taking a wicket with the first ball of this three-match series, an unprecedented moment in a Test in this country. Later, both he and Josh Tongue each celebrated a five-for in a total of 171 – in successive balls, no less, one man’s class instantly backed up by the other’s.
Then, as if to suggest Root had other forces on his side too, the clouds parted just as Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay walked out to forge the reply.
Earlier, sweeping rain had triggered an early lunch, delaying the restart for two and a quarter hours. Now, the sun shone on England’s endeavours, drawing a little of the sting from the surface. At stumps, they had hurried to 112 for two at four and a half an over, with Root unbeaten and ominous on 37.
Not everything went according to plan. Jofra Archer looked devoid of rhythm after his white-ball exertions in the Hundred. Nor was Gus Atkinson at his best, only three days after appearing in the final at Lord’s for Manchester Super Giants.
Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson both took five wickets as England dominated day one of the first Test against Pakistan at Headingley
Robinson bowled with skill and control to take his second five-for in two Tests this summer
Tongue bowled with pace and hostility and took four wickets in 11 balls either side of tea
But Tongue played in that game too, and it didn’t stop him taking four wickets in 11 balls either side of tea – the kind of rapid burst that confirmed a different talent from Robinson, who regularly operated below 80mph, striving for skill not speed.
And Robinson it was who had opened the door through which England happily barged, held up only by a third-wicket stand of 91 between Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique.
In June, he had marked his return to the Test side after an absence of two and a half years with a triple-wicket maiden against New Zealand at Lord’s and a career-best five for 39. But if that underlined his prowess, his subsequent knee injury, followed by England’s refusal to trust him in searing temperatures in Nottingham, resurrected old grumbles about his fitness.
It raised the prospect that England – certainly under Brendon McCullum – might pigeon-hole him as a grey-skies specialist. And when Root won the toss, Robinson could not have asked for more.
His first ball jagged back into the left-handed Azan Awais, bringing both his 500th first-class wicket and a roar from the Headingley crowd as umpire Chris Gaffaney gave his assent.
And Pakistan were six for two when Robinson, with his first ball from over the wicket to Shan Masood, another leftie, won an even more adjacent lbw appeal. It set the tone for a day on which nine of the 12 wickets were either leg-before or bowled – old-fashioned reward for pitching the ball up on a Headingley surface that was helpful but not extravagantly so.
Tongue chipped in when Imam edged low to Harry Brook at second slip for 42, before Robinson pinned Saud Shakeel for five, and was grateful when Shakeel’s request for a review came a fraction too late: DRS suggested the ball would have cleared leg stump.
When, with Jamie Smith up to the stumps, Robinson brought a beauty back through the gate to bowl Shafique for a hard-earned 61, Pakistan were 118 for five and on the downward slope.
Root admitted recently that he overbowled Archer during his first spell in charge. Now, he seemed in danger of doing the same to Robinson: of England’s first 40 overs, he had bowled 16, including a second spell of two for 17 off eight, an answer to the accusation that he needs the new ball to thrive.
Fortunately for Root, it didn’t matter that Archer had mislaid his radar, or that Atkinson lacked consistency. Tongue bowled Salman Agha, Pakistan’s stand-in captain, for 21, then speared a 91mph missile onto Ali Usman’s front pad, triggering tea at 150 for seven.
After the break, Khurram Shahzad hammered the hat-trick ball through the covers, but the end came quickly. Tongue won a marginal lbw shout against an aghast Mohammad Rizwan, before Robinson had Shahzad slogging to mid-on to complete his five-for. Next ball, Tongue joined him, knocking over Mohammad Abbas’s off stump.
England closed on 112-2 in response to Pakistan’s 171 all out after Joe Root and Jordan Cox built a promising partnership
It was pretty much the perfect day for Joe Root as he returned to the England Test captaincy
Not since 2006, when Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar performed the feat against Pakistan at Old Trafford, had two England bowlers taken five wickets in the same Test innings, and Robinson cheerfully jostled for the match ball with Tongue as they led the team off the field.
Robinson’s comeback summer has now brought him 12 wickets at 10. If Root and – when he arrives – Stephen Fleming can turn him into a threat in all conditions, they will unlock the match-winner McCullum had hoped for before his patience snapped.
Pakistan’s swift decline – their last eight fell for 74 – left England two hours to bat.
Duckett narrowly survived an lbw appeal from Abbas third ball, which irritated the Pakistanis, but got only as far as 15 before Abbas won the day’s sixth leg-before verdict.
Gay, meanwhile, hit seven stylish fours before he was squared up by Mohammad Ali and caught at second slip for a 31-ball 33.
Agha brought Rizwan up to the stumps during a tireless 10-over spell from Abbas, but Jordan Cox, in his first Test innings at No 3, and Root – having been cheered to the middle by his fellow Yorkshiremen – were up to the task.
