OLLIE Robinson and Josh Tongue each took five wickets to give Joe Root the ideal start to his second spell as England captain as Pakistan were skittled for 171 on the opening day of the series at Headingley.
Returning four years after his first stint as skipper left him and his team broken, Root’s leadership was barely tested thanks to the excellence of his bowlers and fragility of the Pakistan batting.
(Scores) Pakistan 171 all out: Shafique 61; Tongue 5-46, Robinson 5-51
England 112-2: Root 37*, Gay 33; Abbas 1-34
Root won the toss, pounced on the opportunity to bowl first and Robinson set the tone by pinning Azan Awais leg before with the first ball of the match.
Robinson expertly exploited the movement on offer, relentlessly hitting a full length for his 5-51.
Tongue took longer to warm to his task but when he also found the correct length, he was also too much for Pakistan to handle. Tongue’s 5-46 ended with a final devastating burst of 4-5 from 11 balls.
England needed only 48.1 overs to dismiss the tourists and would have been done more quickly had it not been for 61 from Abdullah Shafique, 42 by Imam-ul-Haq and a near-two-hour rain delay.
It was not all plain sailing for the home side, who lost openers Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay to find themselves 48-2 in the reply.
Captain or not, Root is so often the man to steady England’s batting, and he has said his team will not be wedded to a style of play.
In the company of Jordan Cox, who is at number three in place of the injured Jacob Bethell, Root calmly took the hosts to 112-2, 59 behind.
New-ish era, old captain
After the chaos of Ben Stokes’ retirement and the sacking of Brendon McCullum, England are in a strange holding pattern. The new era does not begin in earnest until Stephen Fleming takes up his post as coach in the winter.
Root has the immediate task of improving the results of a team that has won only two of its previous 10 matches. This was a strong step in the right direction.
Pakistan have not won a series in this country for 30 years. There is a suspicion that little can be learned about England’s fresh start because of the quality of this Pakistan team, especially a batting line-up without injured captain Babar Azam. Wednesday did little to quell that suspicion.
How different was this to the Bazball era? Root, like Stokes, posted himself at mid-off, but did not march around and marshall the field like his predecessor. Much like Stokes, Root was happy to post plenty of fielders in catching positions, though that can be attributed to the match situation.
Perhaps there was a time when the atmosphere felt flat, particularly when Imam and Shafique were adding 91 for the third wicket. Headingley gradually came to life after Tongue removed Imam, and the crowd gave home favourite Root a warm welcome before revelling in his late-evening progress.
Rain is forecast for much of Thursday and much of Friday, though England’s first-day efforts have already given them ample time to begin Root’s second reign with victory. (BBC Sport)
