This was largely far too easy for England.

Another rain-interrupted day in Leeds saw the hosts rattle along at a rate of scoring that would have more than satisfied the previous regime as Pakistan struggled to maintain any kind of control in what appeared to be bowler-friendly conditions. England’s lead already stands at an imposing 195 with two wickets remaining and Jamie Smith still at the crease.

Harry Brook took advantage most of all, scoring an effortless 91 off 93 deliveries before being dismissed just before the close. He departed disappointed, but Jordan Cox, Joe Root and Dan Lawrence, who all helped themselves to half centuries of their own, will also have cursed this as a missed opportunity to fill their boots.

Play did not begin until 2.45pm on the third day, but:

• Cox (73) and Root (66) shared a partnership of 150 before they were dismissed in quick succession.
• But Lawrence (51) and Brook capitalised on some erratic Pakistan bowling and fielding to extend England’s lead.
• Brook, put down on one, was bowled by Ali Usman nine runs short of a first Test century in over a year.
• The spinner went on to claim his first five-wicket haul in Tests, with cracks already opening up in the pitch.

Here, Paul Newman dissects the key talking points from day two at Headingley.

Harry Brook’s quest for Headingley hundred goes on

It has not been the easiest of times for Brook.

His fracas with a nightclub doorman in Wellington last winter led to all the attention on England’s nocturnal habits in the first place and contributed to him being overlooked for the Test captaincy in favour of Root ahead of this series.

The vice-captain has also been without a Test century since his 111 against India last summer, and even that ended negatively as he was blamed for not getting England over the line to a much-needed series victory because of a brainless dismissal to Akash Deep.

But back in familiar surroundings, it looked for much of Thursday afternoon like he would finally make a first hundred on his home ground after getting away with a bad drop by Agha when he had made just one.

He has come close before. He was dismissed for 99 here against India last year, but, after that early miss, he made batting on this track look a formality first in partnership with Lawrence and, later, Smith.

But then, almost out of nowhere, he got himself in a muddle and was bowled by another innocuous delivery from Ali Usman that he should comfortably have guided into the leg-side.

Brook put his hand to his head as he left the field, but this continued his extraordinary form against Pakistan which has seen him score four hundreds in 11 innings, including a triple century in Multan two years ago. He now boasts 932 runs (from 1,000 deliveries) against these opponents at a startling average of 84.72.

And it all came the day after he went back to the top of the ICC world Test batting rankings even without taking to the crease.

A disappointed Harry Brook departs for 91 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Is Jordan Cox giving England a decision to make?

When Jordan Cox made his Test debut against New Zealand earlier this summer, former England captain Nasser Hussain presented him with his first cap and offered a particular piece of advice.

The former England captain told Cox to retain his swagger because it had made him the player he is.

There was a nice strut to Cox at Headingley as he marked his second Test appearance with an innings of confidence and class against Pakistan.

Jordan Cox hits struck 14 boundaries in his Test best 73 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Hussain knew Cox well having watched him play schools cricket for Felsted in Essex against his sons a few years ago and recognised the qualities that have, at times, caused problems for a gifted batter who perhaps has had a little too much confidence.

Cox has clearly matured since his sometimes tempestuous times at Kent and came into this first Test on the back of averaging 68 in the two years since he made the move ‘over the bridge’ to Essex, telling reporters at Headingley he had become a better person.

The 25-year-old made a better fist of his debut at the Oval in June than the other England newcomers, James Rew and Sonny Baker, even if he did not take full advantage of the two starts he made in reaching 27 and 25 against New Zealand when batting at No 7.

Now he has been given at least the first two Tests of this series at No 3, a position where he has previously made just one first-class appearance, in the absence of the injured Jacob Bethell. He very much looked at home in a partnership of 150 with Root.

The biggest compliment that can be paid to Cox is at times it was difficult to distinguish him from England’s most prolific Test batter, such was the quality of the 14 boundaries he struck in his 73 off 100 balls.

There were four in one over from Khurram Shahzad, the last of them a lovely on-drive, and he heaped more punishment on the unfortunate seamer when he returned to the attack for his second spell of the day.

Jordan Cox raises his bat after reaching his first Test half century (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

It was then that Cox, on 57, offered Shahzad a return chance he should have taken. Reprieved, he compounded the bowler’s error by hitting him for three more fours in the over to add to the shot of the day: a straight drive off the spin of Ali Usman that levelled the scores.

Cox really should have gone on to a century with Pakistan looking ragged, but he started playing a couple of loose shots and then edged a good one from Usman behind, wasting a review because he believed he had hit his pad with his bat rather than the ball.

No matter. This was an excellent contribution and a significant step towards giving England a big decision to make in how to accommodate him when Bethell, who has been ruled out of the whole three-match series, returns this winter in South Africa.

Pakistan toil in the Yorkshire gloom

Pakistan could not have asked for better conditions to make inroads into the England batting once rain had finally relented on the second day and haul themselves back into the second Test. They always say you should look up rather than down at Headingley and anyone looking up on Thursday saw a blanket of grey skies — classic weather for seam and swing.

But far too much of Pakistan’s bowling was wayward while much of their fielding would have embarrassed a village team. All of which contributed to England’s significant lead.

Salman Agha departs the field after injuring his finger dropping a catch offered early by Harry Brook (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

There were drops from Shahzad off his own bowling to reprieve Cox and from stand-in captain Salman Agha in the slips to let Harry Brook get away with a shocking shot on one. That reprieve cost the tourists 90.

Pakistan’s chaotic fielding was encapsulated by the sight of wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan getting in the way of a throw from Agha, standing at slip, that would have run out Dan Lawrence because he was appealing for leg before wicket when the ball had clearly hit the England batter outside the line. Rizwan, like too many of this team, had basically taken his eye off the ball.

Pakistan would have been looking to Mohammad Abbas to make a similar impact to the one made to such effect by Ollie Robinson for England but, while the vastly experienced Abbas was accurate, he lacked any sort of penetration.

Shahzad was given a terrible time by Cox while Mohammad Ali may have floated like a butterfly but had very little of a bee’s sting. England were able to rattle along at close to five runs per over. Theirs was a Bazball rate of scoring, without some of the associated risk.

Ali Usman did at least claim his 5-92 (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

It was all far removed from the glory days of Pakistani fast bowling when the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar steamed in, while the gentle spin of Usman bore no relation to the leg-spinning brilliance of the great Abdul Qadir.

At one stage the slow left-armer bowled six overs in succession with a boundary in each when his role was meant to be at least tying down an end while the seamers attacked. The spinner came back well to claim his first five-wicket haul in Tests with a flurry of late rewards under the floodlights, but he had haemorrhaged too many runs for comfort up to then. Indeed, he registered his first maiden in his 21st over of the innings.

Clearly, these are difficult times for Pakistan Test cricket, but there was no real excuse for the lack of discipline in their bowling and fielding that left them, as Hussain put it in the Sky Sports commentary box, with their wheels “not quite falling off but certainly wobbling.”

In praise of the umpiring

There was a time when England and Pakistan Test series were notable for umpiring controversies.

Famously there was the clash between England captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana in Faisalabad in 1987 that almost led to a diplomatic incident. Then there was the feisty series in England in 1992 when the umpires, mainly Ken Palmer, were suspicious over supposed ball-tampering from the Pakistan bowlers, while the tourists in turn felt there was far too much home bias from the English officials.

Fast forward to 2006 and Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove ruled that the Pakistan team led by Inzamam-u-Haq had been involved in ball-tampering at the Oval and handed them a five-run penalty. Pakistan subsequently failed to come out after tea in protest. The umpires removed the bails and declared England winners by forfeiture, the only time that has ever happened in Test cricket.

England’s Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell talk to umpire Darrell Hair after Pakistan failed to take to the field after tea at the Oval in 2006 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

The advent of neutral umpires in all Tests and the Decision Review System (DRS) has taken a lot of tension out of officiating — apart from when Australia’s Hair and West Indies Doctrove intervened at the Oval — and the officials at Headingley have provided a masterclass in the art.

Eleven times on the first two days captains Root and Agha have reviewed the decisions of New Zealand’s Chris Gaffaney and South Africa’s Allahudien Paleker and 11 times the umpires’ judgement has been proved correct.

Umpire Allahuddien Paleker explains to Mohammad Abbas why an appeal for leg before wicket has been rejected (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Only when Pakistan’s Saul Shakeel was given out leg before wicket to Robinson by Paleker on Wednesday and the batter failed to review what was proved to be an incorrect decision have the umpires erred.

Pakistan might point to a couple of tight umpire’s call decisions that went England’s way — notably when Rizwan was given out and Ben Duckett was given not out — but it is only right the marginal calls stay with the on-field umpire and, in these conditions, this has been an outstanding effort from the elite men in white coats.

Dan Lawrence: Quirky but effective

When Dan Lawrence left Essex to join Surrey two years ago, much to the chagrin of Essex legend and Chelmsford elder Graham Gooch among others, he cited his international aspirations as one of the biggest reasons for the move.

There was much more chance, the theory went, of Lawrence re-igniting his Test career at the biggest county in England than if he stayed at what is now one of the smaller non-Test and non-Hundred staging outfits — the once mighty Essex.

So Lawrence might have been excused for questioning his career choices when Cox, the man who effectively replaced him at Chelmsford after moving from Kent, leapfrogged him in the pecking order at the end of 2024 when he was picked for England’s tour of New Zealand. That happened again at the start of this summer when he it was Cox who was picked to face New Zealand at the Oval.

Yes, Lawrence was chosen to stand in for the inured Zak Crawley against Sri Lanka two years ago, but it was out of position as an opener and he made such a slogging hash of it that it seemed he really might be consigned to England’s history.

But the sheer weight of runs made by Lawrence this season, when he has made five superlative first-class centuries for Surrey, earned him the first chance to fill the enormous ‘all-round’ shoes of the retired Ben Stokes. Making the most of his opportunity, he showed his own slightly unorthodox qualities while adding 120 for the fifth wicket with Brook.

Dan Lawrence slog sweeps en route to his 51 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Lawrence, a product of the same north-east London suburb of Chingford that has produced two of England’s most famous footballers, David Beckham and Harry Kane, looked nervous at first and appeared a leading edge waiting to happen.

But he settled into his stride, slog-sweeping to particular effect, and moved to his fifth Test half-century and first since March 2022. He was another England batter who, like Cox and Root, would have been desperately disappointed not to go to a century when he top-edged another sweep off Usman.

With Sam Curran ruled out for the rest of the season on Thursday through injury, Lawrence should now have the whole series to prove he, too, belongs at the highest level — and that his quirky off-spin can play a part in balancing England’s side post-Stokes.