England’s new era is clinging on by its fingertips. On a glorious day at Lord’s, before a full house, and in the best conditions of the game, their top order produced a performance so dismal it is hard to imagine the top six will look the same come the second Test at Headingley.
To slip up after winning the toss and choosing to bat might – but should not – be dismissed as bad luck. To repeat the error two days later, as they collapsed from 91 for two to 110 for six, hints at something more profound.
Not until Jos Buttler and Dom Bess, the two selection bolters, got stuck in after tea, did England look anything other than a team groping for the light switch in the dark. Both made half-centuries – Buttler dealing with the lazy assumption that he needs red-ball form behind him to succeed in Test cricket, the 20-year-old Bess revealing nous and gumption.
England’s Jos Buttler and Dom Bess both frustrated Pakistan late on at Lord’s on day three
Bess raises his bat after claiming his 50 on his Test debut against Pakistan on Saturday
England’s players acknowledge Bess’ half-century late on during day three on Saturday
The chances are their unbroken stand of 124 has merely delayed the inevitable, and the cheers that greeted the Bess cover-drive that ensured Pakistan would bat again were part relief, part gallows humour. At home in May, England – who are in danger of becoming a team forever trading on promise and potential – expect better.
As it is, they are 235 for six, only 56 ahead, and hoping that the absence of Babar Azam with a broken arm will help foment panic in whatever run-chase Pakistan eventually embark on. And, well, you never know – certainly not where the Pakistanis are concerned.
Until the fightback, no gesture had been more eloquent than the swish of the bat with which Joe Root greeted technology’s confirmation of his demise for 68. That he had failed once more to convert a half-century into three figures was beside the point: that is the least of his team’s problems. Put simply, too many of them have had a stinker.
Defeat in Australia and New Zealand was one thing. Defeat by Pakistan at home so early in the season would be unprecedented. This game was supposed to be about the consolation of home comforts. Instead, it is as if someone has put broken glass in the slippers, and laced the sherry with arsenic.
Joe Root posted 68 before being caught lbw by Mohamed Abbas just before tea on Saturday
Despite a frustrating end to the day, Pakistan will still fancy their chances of beating England
England went into this game having lost six of their previous nine Tests, and won only one – against West Indies. It leaves them facing two, equally alarming, contrasts: with their own thrilling 50-over side, and with Pakistan’s coach Mickey Arthur, whose energy and drive have dovetailed beautifully with a young, talented team.
Trevor Bayliss’s contract runs until the end of the 2019 summer, when England will host the World Cup and the Ashes. He is popular, and the ECB don’t want to convey panic. But 15 wins and 19 defeats since he took over is not good enough for a team of England’s resources and playing base.
The argument that he will turn it around, reclaim the urn and be carried shoulder high into the sunset looks less convincing by the series.
In the immediate future, the new national selector Ed Smith – after a honeymoon of shuddering brevity – must consider whether to drop opener Mark Stoneman, who made a scratchy nine before being bowled by Shadab Khan. The leg-break kept low, but Stoneman stayed back. He averages 27 in Test cricket, and looks shot. Lancashire’s Keaton Jennings and Middlesex’s Nick Gubbins should stay by their phones.
England crumbled in the afternoon of day three, losing four wickets for just 19 runs
Abbas celebrates the dismissal of Root at Lord’s as Pakistan edge ever closer to victory
Dawid Malan is also a worry. In Australia, he indulged his back-foot strengths and averaged 42. In England and New Zealand, challenged on the front foot, he averages 20. Twice in this game he has failed to get forward; twice it has cost him.
Alastair Cook received a good one from the nagging Mohammad Abbas, while Bairstow – two balls after Malan’s removal – got a beauty from Mohammad Amir that swung in and hit the top of off.
But the dismissal of Ben Stokes for nine, caught at midwicket trying to shovel Shadab, felt as if it belonged at the IPL. When Abbas pinned Root, England had lost four for 19 in 37 balls – and the captain had made his eighth fifty in eight Tests.
Pakistan fielders walk in as Root plays a shot at a sunny Lord’s on Saturday afternoon
Faced with humiliation, England fought back. Buttler hit a trio of fours in an over from Hasan Ali, and Bess – who recently made a first-class hundred for MCC against Essex – got into line. Pakistan started setting funky fields, as Root had done for Mark Wood on Friday. The deficit narrowed and the crowd got involved.
For all the scrappiness of their post-tea effort, Pakistan deserve credit. Before they warmed up for this game with a tense win in Ireland, they had lost nine Tests out of 11, and dropped to seventh in the rankings – a steep descent from the top spot they occupied after drawing 2-2 in England in 2016.
But they have showed a nous that has largely been beyond their opponents. Their batsmen stood out of the crease to combat swing; their bowlers hammered out a length. Even if England pull off a heist, those are lessons they cannot ignore.