It was not a good day for Joe Root to spill a catch at second slip, the sort that he was plucking out of the air without blinking at Old Trafford. Azhar Ali, who was on 38 at the time, was not exactly quick to capitalise, rather he was assiduously slow to do so except when Moeen Ali was bowling at him.
There was another problem for Root. The cricket was so unusually attritional – there was the first wicketless session of the series – that the TV directors were a little perplexed. So as the afternoon wore on they kept showing the drop from every conceivable angle. Whichever one they chose Root still dropped what was, in fairness, a tricky chance. After Old Trafford he was mortal again.
It was a brilliant day for Pakistan, albeit in a strange, understated way. Their batting coach might argue that they gifted England three wickets – even if they were the only three to fall: a long hop plinked to cover in the first over, a daft run-out half an hour into the final session and a loss of concentration against the last ball of the day. But a substantial first-innings lead is in sight. For that they can thank Sami Aslam and Azhar, who combined superbly, barring Azhar’s wayward call for a single.
The first two days suggest that the Pakistan think-tank, a polyglot combination of southern Africans, a hard-nosed Aussie alongside their bowling coach/interpreter Mushtaq Ahmed, their chairman of selectors, the stately Inzamam-ul-Haq, and captain Misbah-ul-Haq, made some fine decisions beforehand. It can be foolhardy to draw too many conclusions before the halfway point, but the signs are good for Pakistan.
Their team changes have worked superbly, while Misbah’s decision to insert England, which seemed to puzzle a lot of sages, looks to have worked rather well. (OK, I’ll own up: after 20 minutes of the first morning’s play I was beginning to compile the inevitable list of unsuccessful insertions. You know the ones: Len Hutton and Nasser Hussain in Brisbane, Mike Denness, John Wright and Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston, and away we go).
Sohail Khan, drafted into the side instead of Wahab Riaz, took five wickets on Wednesday, in his third Test in seven years. Then Aslam, replacing Shan Masood, much to the disappointment of Jimmy Anderson, who wore his disappointed look for most of a very long day, delivered a mature and chanceless 82 in his third Test. He had not played a first-class match all year.
Aslam has some pedigree, some experience and some odd records. He is, for example, the second highest run scorer in Under-19 ODI cricket with 1,695 after no less than 40 matches; he captained the Pakistan side here during a triangular tournament in 2014. Odder still, at 20 he is the youngest Test cricketer currently playing, which makes one wonder whether he is one of the oldest youngest cricketers in Test history.
Pakistan, in particular, have a record of plunging young players into Tests. Hasan Raza was apparently only 14 years old, Mushtaq Mohammed was 15, Aqib Javed 16, Mushtaq’s older brother Hanif was 17; so were Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis. When Aslam played his two previous Tests against Bangladesh, he was already 19 years of age.
The impression created here is that he may well play for Pakistan for some considerable time. He may have forged a reputation as a 21st century dasher at the top of the order throughout his Under-19 career but in this Test innings he displayed 20th century virtues. Most strikingly he left the ball superbly, especially when it was new. He was prepared to play the long game.
There was some neat swing for Anderson early on but whenever possible Aslam let the ball pass harmlessly by. This happened too often for the satisfaction of the England camp.
Meanwhile, Stuart Broad now constantly pushes the ball across left-handers or into right-handers. Once again Aslam, as if a reincarnation of Hanif or Mudassar Nazar, watched the ball thud into the wicketkeeper’s gloves. If Anderson tried his inswinger to the left-hander, a luxury not currently available to Broad, Aslam was alert enough to play the ball. Like Azhar, he let the runs come against the pacemen, rather than taking the risk of looking for them.
Alastair Cook stood at first slip, trying to hide his frustration. For a while he brought to mind Clive Lloyd, who sometimes resembled a foreman overseeing the shifts of his four-prong West Indian pace attack. Likewise Cook’s his bowling changes seemed to be dictated by the clock. If it was midday then it was time for Chris Woakes and Steven Finn to be tossed the ball.
Eventually – just before lunch, of course – it was Moeen Ali’s turn and immediately the tempo changed. It was as if both Aslam and Azhar had been tutored by Misbah on how to approach batting against England: block their seamers and blast the spinners.
Whenever Moeen was bowling the backlift was elongated; both batsmen cleared the boundary against blameless deliveries without a hint of desperation, a commodity that was more in evidence in the England camp at the close of one their longest days of the summer. At least Cook was on hand to take that final slip catch. By then the time for frequent replays had passed.
