Ollie Pope salutes Yorkshiremen Joe Root and Harry Brook in England’s ‘special’ innings-and-47-run win over Pakistan – and reveals Ben Stokes’ chances of playing in the second Test

Ollie Pope hailed one of England’s greatest victories after they completed a remarkable innings-and-47-run win over Pakistan on the final morning of the first Test.

Jack Leach took the last three wickets to fall as the Pakistanis were bundled out for 220 on a pitch that remained blameless, persuading Pope to rank the result alongside the wins over New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2022, Pakistan at Rawalpindi two years ago, and India at Hyderabad in January.

‘Those are the ones that we really look back on, and this is right up there with the rest of them too,’ he said.

‘Everyone knows what a special win this was. Credit to those two Yorkshiremen, the way Rooty and Brooky went about it. In another situation, you’d play a few more shots once you’re past your hundred, but they knew how important it was to get us up to that massive score.

‘And then the way the bowlers bowled was phenomenal. It’s been a serious effort from those guys in the heat. A really pleasing performance.’

Jack Leach (right) took the last three wickets to fall as the Pakistanis were bundled out for 220

Joe Root and Harry Brook scored a combined 579 runs to give England a commanding firs-innings lead

Asked whether Ben Stokes might be ready to return for Tuesday’s second Test here, Pope replied: ‘I’m not sure. Fingers crossed he’s all good. He has had a good week training, but I will be ready to captain if not.’

Chris Woakes – who started Pakistan’s slide by bowling Abdullah Shafique with the first ball of their second innings – said it was now up to the hosts to produce result pitches for each of the last two games if they wanted to fight their way back into the series.

‘There was talk about green surfaces, but I don’t know what that was,’ he said. ‘The ball is firmly in their court. When it’s a home series and it’s only three matches and you lose the first, you’d like to think that the next two are going to be results wickets – whether that be green or turners, we’ll see.’

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shan Masood denied his team were mentally weak after their second-innings capitulation.

‘The harsh reality is that England found a way, and we didn’t,’ he said. ‘And after two days being under the sun, being 556 runs behind, they gave themselves the chance to bat big. 

Ben Stokes has continued to work his way back from injury and is in contention to play in the second Test

‘And when they came back with the ball, they executed their plans really well. No matter what the pitch is, quality sides will find a way, and England did that.

‘I wouldn’t say my team is weak mentally. Like I said, that third innings in isolation can seem like a collapse. But if we had kept England around our score, then those 220 runs could have been a difference.’