Alastair Cook and Joe Root consolidate after England’s bowlers tear through Pakistan to grab upper hand

England (106-2) trail Pakistan (174) by 68 runs: In all facets, in fact, England were vastly improved from their runaway bathtub of a performance at Lord’s

Alastair Cook plays through the offside (Getty Images)

It was a start, nothing more, and in a game as richly and maddeningly epic as Test cricket, a start was all it could ever be. But as Alastair Cook and Joe Root ticked down the overs in the evening sunlight that seemed to soak Leeds like a luxuriant bath, you could sense just a few of England’s troubles melting away. This game is there to be won, the series is there to be shared, and in order to share it England will have to reproduce the same assured patience they showed on day one.

Their seamers stepped up, uprooting Pakistan for a thin-looking 174 on a fine surface under cloudy skies. But in a way, it was their display with the bat in the evening that offered greater encouragement: calmly and maturely consolidating their advantage, at just the moment Pakistan were looking to strike at it. Cook’s dismissal for 46 with eight minutes remaining was deeply annoying, and forced Dom Bess into an awkward little cameo before stumps. But with first Keaton Jennings and then Root, Cook had provided England with a platform, constructing his innings with the same diligence as the workmen rebuilding Headingley’s main stand, which sat bare and deserted in vigil.

In all facets, in fact, England were vastly improved from their runaway bathtub of a performance at Lord’s. Apart from one drop by Dawid Malan, they took their catches. Their new-look attack, with the returning Chris Woakes and the debutant Sam Curran replacing the unfortunate Mark Wood and the injured Ben Stokes, pitched the ball up and trusted it to swing.

It’s possible to interpret England’s return to bowling form as a sort of rebuke to the criticism that rained down on the pace attack in the aftermath of Lord’s: two branded fingers to the haters. In truth, their subtly adjusted lengths were a tacit admission that the criticism had been sound. Stuart Broad bowled as well as he has done in this country since the 2015 Ashes. Anderson was frustratingly short with the new ball but offered more after lunch, and reaped the rewards. Woakes skilfully varied his movement and angles of attack. Together they shared nine of the Pakistani wickets; Curran, the 19-year-old left-armer from Surrey, took the other, opening his Test account when Shadab Khan heaved an ugly pull to deep mid-wicket. After a mixed couple of spells in which he had obtained lavish swing but not much control, it was hardly a classical seamer’s dismissal. The teenager’s leap of pure delight strongly suggested he couldn’t care less.

Such was the movement, in fact, that serious questions should be asked of Sarfraz Khan’s decision to bat first on winning the toss, despite the morning cloud cover. Look up, not down, goes the old motto at Headingley, and with the pitch often at its best for batting on days two and three, and England’s batting so short on confidence, it was a curious call by Sarfraz. One, indeed, he may well have been regretting just three hours later, when Anderson splattered his stumps to leave Pakistan 78-5.

By that stage, the pattern of the day had been well set. Pakistan had laboured for 20 minutes for their first run, by which time Broad had tempted Imam-up-Haq into a loose drive, Root taking the catch at third slip. After Azhar Ali was trapped on the crease, Woakes deceived Haris Sohail into offering a fairly limp-wristed push outside off-stump, Asad Shafiq edged the same bowler to slip, and so Pakistan lunched on 68-4.

After Sarfraz was followed back into the hutch by debutant Usman Salahuddin and Faheem Ashraf, Pakistan’s lower order decided to have a little fun. Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali cuffed their way to 43 in five overs before Woakes, having taken the brunt of the collaring, pouched Hasan off the leading edge. Shadab slashed and heaved his way to a 48-ball fifty, but when he was the last man out to Curran, Pakistan had been bowled out inside two sessions. After the high of Lord’s, this was a monumental and dispiriting comedown.

England celebrate the wicket of Haris Sohail (Getty Images)

And so by stumps, England had shaved their deficit down to 68, with plenty of batting still to come. Jennings made only 29, but immediately looked more assured than his predecessor Mark Stoneman, and indeed his predecessor Keaton Jennings. The Lancashire opener claims to be a more technically sound player than he was when he was dropped from the Test side a year ago, and in the face of a stern opening spell by Mohammads Amir and Abbas, he looked it, too.

Batting well outside his crease with an off-stump guard, leaving well, keeping his pad away from the line, Jennings saw off the new ball and accumulated with some nice drives and the odd earned edge for four. But with the hard work done, the excellent Faheem found just the right spot on about middle stump, and found the thinnest of edges. The opening stand had been worth 53 and while not a major score, not a big opening stand, not the answer to England’s top-of-the-shop conundrum by a long chalk, this too was a start.

Cook’s dismissal, by contrast, was a real choker: short and down the leg side from Hasan, with barely enough pace to carry to Sarfraz via the under-edge of Cook’s bat. You would have been embarrassed to get a wicket in a club game with a delivery with that, and indeed perhaps Cook was even through the shot a touch early. But it was a lifeline for Pakistan at the end of a deeply frustrating day, one they will yet do well to recover from.