For England, the opening forays in the Old Trafford Test presented a chance to restate basic values, an opportunity to eradicate the slackness that had characterised their batting during a 75-run defeat at Lord’s. Their leading lights, Alastair Cook and Joe Root, did their utmost to set the tone: centuries claimed by both on a day of Pakistan toil.
England were fortunate they did because Alex Hales, James Vince and Gary Ballance the latter against the second new ball all fell cheaply as the middle order failed to assert itself in excellent batting conditions.
Cook’s 29th Test hundred took him alongside Don Bradman, albeit in about three times as many innings, and there was such a skip in his step that he had it signed, sealed and delivered 15 minutes before tea, his second fifty at virtually a run a ball.
It would have been tempting to call it an immaculate hundred on a flawless pitch, were it not for the evidence of what became the last ball before tea. He was bowled for 105 by Mohammad Amir, betrayed on the back foot by a delivery that scuttled through malevolently to bowl him off a defensive cue end.
Root was 87 upon Cook’s dismissal, the partnership worth 185 in 49 overs, but his desire to recalibrate extended to the close at which point he was unbeaten on 141. There has been a growing sense that Root has felt in such bountiful form at the crease that he has been lulled into over ambition, but this was an innings of unremitting virtue, straighter of stroke, as he committed himself to eliminating risk and was rewarded for his discretion.
The last time Cook made a Test hundred, it broke Len Hutton’s record for the longest Test innings, in terms of minutes, ever assembled by an England batsman. Pakistan conceded that one, too, in a high-scoring stalemate in Abu Dhabi in November. There will be some suffering for bowlers before this Test turns in their favour, but stalemate seems unlikely.
Amir possessed most verve for Pakistan. He had received a gracious welcome at Lord’s on his return to Test cricket and the sense of a sentence served, and a career reborn, largely survived in Manchester. There were sporadic taunts of “no-ball” from the crowd, a contrast to Lord’s where even talking loudly is viewed as indecorous, but there was no malevolence, and he should view that as fair enough in his comeback series.
It will be no surprise if his growing confidence that forgiveness is widespread – and that even those who would have life-banned him have made their peace with the decision – is indicated in the growing ambition of his haircut. It was wild and flowing in his teenaged years, assumed military sobriety on his return from suspension as if a symbol of repentance laid down by the High Sparrow, but there is a sign now of something imaginative going on.
Hales was the England batsman to fall in the morning, his progress in the series against Sri Lanka so far stilled by a Pakistan left-arm pace attack of higher quality. He was cleaned up by Amir, a ball that might have been driveable had his footwork possessed more conviction and it not swung in with pace and malice to bowl him through the gate.
By then, Hales had been given a bit of a going-over. A leave against Rahat Ali was perilously close, an lbw appeal resulting from a Rahat inswinger also adjacent, and three balls before his dismissal a boundary against Amir burst through gully’s hands. This is an examination of far greater intensity than the one provided by the Sri Lanka attack that Sanath Jayasuriya risibly billed as the best in the world.
England have not lost at Old Trafford since 2001, a warm day told of a gathering summer and, if the pitch was not quite as quick as some hoped, it had pace and evenness enough to make batting an enjoyable proposition for Cook and Root.
Pakistan employed Yasir’s legspin as early as the 13th over and he completed two short spells by lunch, but in the afternoon, with Cook and Root in absolute control, he was reduced to negativity when he went around the wicket to Root, hunting out imaginary rough created by Pakistan’s imaginary right-arm quicks. He will be more of a handful second time around although 31 overs on the opening day was quite a burden.
For Cook, such an easeful innings was rare; here is a batsman who has proceeded through a productive Test career by virtue of dogged concentration and pared-down risk. His introductory boundaries were edgy affairs – Amir causing him to edge wide of third slip with the sixth ball of the day – but he rarely had so many opportunities to unveil his favourite cut shot and a measured first 50 turned into a dance in the park.
Root looked crisp of mind and stroke from the outset, his approach an assertion that he had tired of himself as “The Great Entertainer”. That he rode a blow on the shoulder from Amir, rather than risk a pull with two men back, told of his mindset. He reduced risk against the left-arm angle by driving determinedly straight off the front foot and square off the back foot. His afternoon began with a controlled pull against Rahat, and was rounded off with his first slog-sweep, against the spin of Yasir, with the ball full enough to minimise the risk and the wrists rolled.
Take away Cook and Root and not everything was rosy for England. Vince still has no half-century in an increasingly troubled introductory Test summer in which has dismissal, driving at a wide one from , has become his own version of Groundhog Day. Nothing has removed the suspicion held by many county watchers that for all his mournful-faced style he is prone to error.
Ballance battled to take advantage of his second Test phase, but he looked uncertain here, arising from his stance like a mole emerging from a mound of earth, not entirely sure of its bearings. Rahat bowled him, a delivery angled in by the left-armer which Ballance tried to chop behind point when it was too close for the shot and instead deflected on to his stumps.
Pakistan’s pace bowlers were at their least impressive with the second new ball, Misbah-ul-Haq almost indicating that he expected as much by semi-defensive fields. How a four-strong attack must have regretted the lack of Mohammad Hafeez’s offspin – his action is due to be retested after a 12-month ban expired because a few holding overs would have helped them through the day.