The day after being confirmed as Test cricket’s new No 1 batsman, Harry Brook celebrated his ascent with a blistering 91 off 93 balls as England continued to dominate Pakistan in Leeds.
If there was disappointment at his demise, bowled by left-arm spinner Ali Usman as he closed in on what would have been his first Test hundred on his home ground, it was an innings that confirmed his panache, and took England halfway towards a welcome victory.
At stumps on the second evening, after a clatter of late wickets for Usman, they were 366 for eight, a lead of 195. Barring something unlikely, the second Joe Root era is heading for an early fillip.
Despite a moderate series against New Zealand, Brook had found himself back on top of the ICC rankings after Travis Head failed twice during Australia’s shock defeat by Bangladesh in Darwin.
Had Pakistan captain Salman Agha held on low to his right at second slip when Brook, on one, offered catching practice off Khurram Shahzad, he might have handed back his crown before it had even been measured and fitted.
But England’s vice-captain counter-attacked with brio on another rain-shortened day on which his team added 254 from 57 overs, and barely broke sweat.
Harry Brook celebrated his ascent to Test cricket’s No 1 batsman with a blistering 91 off 93 balls
Jordan Cox reacts to being dropped by the tourists – who wasted heaven-sent bowling conditions and fielded like a circus troupe
After the start was delayed until 2.45pm, there were also half-centuries for Jordan Cox, his first at this level, the inevitable Root and – on his return to the side – Dan Lawrence, as the tourists wasted heaven-sent bowling conditions and fielded like a circus troupe.
Where once Headingley drew swathes of green-shirted Pakistan fans, they are now conspicuous by their absence, a sadness that reflects their team’s fortunes. When Usman tried to field the ball with his boot on the third-man boundary and succeeded only in kicking it over the foam, you wondered what Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis must have made of it all.
If there was any criticism of England, it was a lack of ruthlessness against an attack in which only Usman and Mohammad Abbas look up to scratch. Shahzad and Muhammad Ali, by contrast, have so far taken a combined two for 200 from 38 mainly wasteful overs.
Cox played some effortless strokes in his first innings at No 3, including four boundaries in an over off Shahzad, but on 73 poked at Usman and was caught behind by Mohammad Rizwan, ending a third-wicket stand of 150. As if unable to believe what he had just done, Cox wasted a review.
So did Root four balls later, after unexpectedly missing a work to leg off Shahzad. When DRS confirmed three reds, England’s top four – including Ben Duckett on Wednesday evening – had burned all their reviews, and Root was trudging off. His dismissal pleased only the nerds: out for 66 in his 66th Test as captain, with 66 on the back of his shirt.
If Brook had been held by Agha, 198 for three would have become 205 for five, offering Pakistan a glimmer. Instead, he put on 120 in 25 overs with Lawrence, who drove straight and swept hard.
He too, though, was left with a sense of regret. Having brought up his first Test fifty in four and a half years, he miscued a slog-sweep off Usman and was walking off even as Rizwan waited for the skyer.
The stage seemed set for Brook to put aside the trauma of his 99 here a year ago against India, and he raced through the eighties. But an attempted whip to leg off Usman proved his undoing, the ball beating his outside edge and cannoning into middle stump.
Of all the treks back to the pavilion, Brook’s was the slowest, yet such has been his hold over Pakistan’s bowlers for the last four years that his performance here only marginally improved his record against them. It now reads 932 from 11 innings at nearly 85. Say what you like about the friendliness of the attack, but that is still some going.
Buoyed by the breakthrough, Usman pinned Gus Atkinson leg-before for three, then bowled Ollie Robinson first ball, celebrating a maiden five-for in only his third Test by dropping to his knees in quiet prayer.
Pakistan will need their batsmen to show similar resolve in their second innings if they are to get out of this.
Latest Curran blow leaves England short of Stokes successors
By Richard Gibson
Sam Curran’s hopes of ending a five-year Test exile next month are over after it was decided that his groin trouble requires surgery.
Curran, 28, was identified as the successor to Ben Stokes in the all-rounder role by England’s selectors and had been earmarked for a return against Pakistan at Edgbaston.
But the Surrey player, who made the last of his Test 24 appearances in August 2021, must now undergo the knife on Friday to fix a long-standing issue that kept him out of the Indian Premier League earlier this year and limited his bowling this summer.
England’s national selector Marcus North recently confirmed that Curran was lined up to feature in the third Test from 9 September pending his fitness post Hundred.
However, Curran’s disappointing news could be good for county colleague Dan Lawrence, who is currently balancing England’s team at Headingley, complementing his top-six batting with serviceable off-spin.
Ideally, England would like a seam-bowling exponent to occupy the all-rounder slot, but the lack of quality alternatives could provide Lawrence with a stay of execution in his fourth life as a Test cricketer regardless of his performances over the next fortnight.
Curran, who made the last of his Test 24 appearances in August 2021, must now undergo the knife on Friday to fix a long-standing issue that kept him out of the IPL earlier this year
Another Surrey spinning all-rounder Will Jacks, a member of last winter’s Ashes defeat, is also sidelined following an appendectomy, but unlike Curran is anticipated to be fit to face Sri Lanka in Twenty20 and one-day series in September.
England’s seam-bowling all-rounder options are limited after Jamie Overton called time on his Test career last year to concentrate on limited-overs opportunities across international and franchise scenes.
Daily Mail Sport understands there is no chance of him reconsidering this decision, but England’s apparent ditching of an obsession with pace under the new regime could be good news for his twin brother Craig when considering the third Test squad.
The last of Overton’s eight appearances came during the tour of the Caribbean in 2022, but he is having the season of his life with Somerset, hitting three hundreds with the bat and taking 33 wickets at fewer than 20 runs apiece in the County Championship.
Meanwhile, it is uncertain whether Jacob Bethell will return before the end of the season due to the meniscus issue in his knee that has ruled him out of the Pakistan series.
Bethell, 22, has established himself across all formats for England, but is currently on a strength programme for his injury with an as yet unspecified return date.
England follow the 2026 summer with a triangular white-ball tournament in Pakistan in October and a limited-overs tour of Australia in November before taking on world champions South Africa in a three-Test series spanning Christmas.
