England’s bowlers toil against Pakistan on opening day of first Test as Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique both score centuries – with visiting bowling mentor Jimmy Anderson still absent

In the City of Saints, England spent the first day of their Test series against Pakistan muttering a quiet prayer. It went largely unanswered.

By stumps, on a surface flatter than the roads connecting the centre of Multan with its cricket stadium, the hosts had eased to 328 for four, with centuries for opener Abdullah Shafique and, gloriously, captain Shan Masood – his first in Tests for four years.

And England’s bowlers? Well, they looked what they were: an inexperienced unit asked by the administrators to perform the impossible task of thriving in 37-degree heat less than a week after leaving behind the chill of a British autumn.

It would be wrong to say they were undercooked: the thermometer said otherwise. But four of their XI were playing a one-dayer against Australia at sub-Arctic Bristol as recently as September 29, while the 28-day gap between the last Test of the summer and the first of the winter has never been shorter.

In the circumstances, they did not disgrace themselves, with Chris Woakes grabbing the prize late wicket of Babar Azam to ease a little of the pain for tired minds and muscles. But what, frankly, did anyone expect?

Shan Masood scored a fabulous 151 before being caught and bowled by spinner Jack Leach

England’s bowlers toiled in the heat having left their homeland less than a week ago

Had Ollie Pope won the toss, matters might have taken a different course on a pitch which belied Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie’s suggestion to Mail Sport that he wanted a ‘balance between bat and ball’.

Instead, it was as if the ECB had airlifted a disorientated group of players into no-man’s land, with nothing more than a ‘good luck, chaps’.

England’s players and fans deserve better than a schedule that is allowing the first group no time to recuperate or acclimatise, and the second no time to anticipate or savour.

It felt inevitable, then, that Pope’s misfortune at the toss coincided with the delayed arrival of bowling coach Jimmy Anderson, who has been playing golf at the Alfred Dunhill links championship in St Andrews.

On Sunday, Brendon McCullum had reacted tetchily to media questions about Anderson’s absence, eventually joking he wished he had missed the cut. But while Anderson’s arrangement with England is on a freelance basis, they will have to live with the repercussions.

Still, perception counts, and the idea that McCullum’s Bazballers enjoy their golf as much as their cricket has irritated some fans.

Whether Anderson could have done much to affect proceedings on a surface prepared by the Pakistan board’s Australian groundsman Tony Hemming, is another matter.

Two years ago, his series economy-rate of 2.20 was backed up by two others who aren’t here now: Ollie Robinson (2.47) and Mark Wood (2.72). Between them, they managed 25 wickets at 20 apiece – a central pillar to England’s 3–0 win.

England bowling mentor Jimmy Anderson remains absent as he plays golf at St Andrews

Gus Atkinson was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets on a tough day with the ball 

That series, though, took place in the cooler month of December, and the only bowler who went at less than three an over on Monday was spinner Jack Leach, playing his first Test since January. 

For good measure, Leach removed Masood, caught low down off his own bowling for 151 – a superb innings from a player who has averaged under 20 since his previous century, at Old Trafford during the Covid summer of 2020, and whose captaincy stint has started with five defeats out of five.

Leach’s performance made Pope’s decision to give Shoaib Bashir six expensive overs before the left-armer was allowed the last before lunch look inflexible.

Bashir may have leapfrogged his Somerset team-mate to become England’s No 1 spinner, but Leach’s 15 victims in 2022-23 were another major factor in that whitewash. And three of his wickets were supplied by Shafique, who had 53 before Leach got a bowl.

The seamers were a mixed bag. Gus Atkinson carried on where he left off in the summer, strangling Saim Ayub down the leg side in the day’s fourth over, and later ending a huge stand of 253 in 56 overs when Shafique drove loosely to Pope at point.

And the wholehearted Brydon Carse thought he had a wicket in only his second over as a Test cricketer when umpire Dharmasena upheld an lbw shout against Masood on 16. DRS, however, had a full-length delivery pitching a fraction outside leg.

For Woakes, playing his first overseas Test of the Bazball era, there was little to quell the suspicion that he should remain a home specialist. His opening four-over spell cost 19 and included too many freebies.

England will argue that their quickest bowlers – Wood, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue – are all injured, and that Woakes is their only source of experience now that Anderson and Stuart Broad have gone. By trapping Babar late on for 30, he redressed some of the balance.

It was a day when everything needed to go right for England, and not enough did. Pope’s underarm shy from mid-on missed the stumps with Shafique, then 34, short of his ground, and the captain later put down a tough chance at point as Masood, on 133, mistimed a cut off Carse.

Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique, Abdullah Shafique also bagged himself a century, scoring 102 from 184 balls in the Multan heat

Brydon Carse thought he had a Test wicket on debut before his lbw on Masood was overturned

Chris Woakes (left) got the important wicket of Babar Azam (right) for 30 just minutes before close

In between, Pope took his DRS record to zero correct challenges out of 11 as Masood got into a tangle trying to sweep Bashir.

Above all, it was a day that put into perspective England’s historic win in Pakistan two years ago, a triumph that has been underplayed by those determined to denigrate Bazball.

It was tough then, and it’s tough now. But this time, England have been given less chance, and looked less equipped, to deal with the hardship.