This was the kind of day of which Joe Root would have dreamed following his reappointment as England’s Test captain.

The skipper marked his full-time return to the role by winning the toss, seeing a wicket fall to the first ball of the match and Pakistan subside to only 171 all out. Then, just for good measure, England’s premier batter was unbeaten on 37 at the close of play with his team only 59 runs in arrears. It felt like the ideal start for Root’s England 2.0.

On a rain interrupted first day in Leeds:

• The returning Ollie Robinson excelled with 5-51, dismissing Azan Awais with the first ball of the series — Pakistan’s first ‘platinum duck’ since Mohsin Khan suffered the fate against India in 1983
• Abdullah Shafique led the fight back from 6-2 with an impressive 61, sharing a stand of 91 with Imam-ul-Haq for the third wicket.
• But Josh Tongue returned to rip through the lower order and claim 5-46 of his own as Pakistan’s last five wickets fell for 21 runs.
• England lost both openers, but an unbeaten partnership of 64 between Root and Jordan Cox took them to 112-2 by the close.

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

Play was suspended for two hours with Pakistan 23-2 early on at Leeds as the weather closed in (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Here’s to you, Ollie Robinson

It has been quite a summer for Ollie Robinson.

Recalled after more than two years in the international wilderness for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, he responded with a triple-wicket maiden in his first over and went on to take seven wickets in a comprehensive England victory.

Then, after missing the second Test with a knee injury, he was left out of the chaotic finale to the series at Trent Bridge when the now former coach Brendon McCullum decided he still could not fully trust a bowler with well-documented fitness and attitude issues.

That persuaded Robinson to take the bulk of July off from county duty with Sussex to make absolutely sure he was ready for this series. He was duly at it again on his latest recall with another superb display of metronomic seam and swing bowling.

Ollie Robinson consistently caused Pakistan’s batters problems on the first day in Leeds (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

When conditions are in his favour — as they were at an overcast Leeds — Robinson is one of the best and most consistent bowlers in the world, as he showed again on the first day of the first Test by taking a quite brilliant 5-51. It was his fifth five-wicket haul in only his 22nd Test since his debut five years ago.

Robinson had a long bowl ahead of play on the Headingley outfield and hit his straps immediately by becoming the first bowler to take a wicket with the first ball of the series in any Test in England by trapping the unfortunate 21-year-old Azan Awais leg before wicket. Over on Instagram, Robinson’s wife Mia Baker, a social media influencer, was busy posting a video of their baby Eva, born just three days ago, ‘watching’ her dad bowl for the first time.

After that, Robinson was a class above the rest of the England attack, which was perhaps not surprising as he was the only one who did not feature in The Hundred that ended only three days ago with a final that included both Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.

There was a stroke of luck for Robinson when he trapped Saul Shakeel leg before, South African umpire Allahudien Paleker taking an age to raise his finger with the technology later showing the ball would have missed the stumps. Shakeel was two seconds too late in asking for a review and was sent on his way.

This was a demonstration of the modern trend for bowlers of less than express pace being just as effective as the explosive ones. Robinson was recorded bowling at an average of 78.7mph, his second slowest for England — behind only a spell in Adelaide during the ‘Covid’ Ashes of 2021-22 being slower. And on that occasion he included a bit of off-spin.

Robinson has taken his wickets at a remarkable average of 10 runs a piece since he returned to the England side this year, but the ultimate test of his durability will still come when he bowls on flat surfaces and has to return for three or four spells per innings.

Classy Shafique offers some resistance

It did look as though Pakistan might weather the storm when Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique were adding 91 for the third wicket after the two early Robinson strikes. Theirs was a potentially priceless contribution in what felt likely to be a low-scoring first Test, and the pair’s progress was only checked by a rare lapse from Imam who was caught at slip after flashing at a wide one from Tongue.

Shafique in particular batted with considerable discipline, application and no little class in the face of extreme movement off the pitch and through the air after Joe Root had won the toss.

Iman had survived one of two reviews wasted by returning England captain Root before he had scored when a delivery by Robinson clearly struck him outside the line of off-stump. Then Root erred again in his use of technology when he reviewed for an apparent inside edge onto his pads from Shafique when he was on 12 only for no bat to be detected by DRS.

But the pair survived, resisted and, albeit briefly, threatened to flourish.

Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique during their partnership of 91 (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)

Shafique was the more fluent, with his on-driving a particular highlight — evidence of the work he has put in on his technique having been exposed playing the shot against these same opponents almost two years ago.

It was the continuation of a purple patch for the 26-year-old since his recall for Pakistan’s series-levelling victory against West Indies in Trinidad at the start of this month. He made an unbeaten century in that game even if it had taken injuries to prompt his call-up from the Global Super League that was taking place in Guyana.

Shafique had twice previously passed 50 against England and both times had gone on to centuries, but he was unable to make it a hat-trick at Headingley when he was dismissed by a beauty from Robinson for 61 that jagged back and bowled him through the gate. The previous ball had pitched in almost exactly the same place and moved away off the seam.

In truth, it needed an excellent delivery to dismiss Shafique for the first time in Test cricket in almost a year — admittedly he spent most of that time out of the side — following that unbeaten 160 and 24 in Port-of-Spain prior to this impressive knock in Leeds.

Wicket, wicket, time for a cup of tea…

No sport does ‘it doesn’t help itself’ moments better than cricket.

There was another classic example at the end of a lengthy afternoon session that was extended by earlier rain. Tongue had just taken two wickets in successive balls, the first when stand-in Pakistan captain Salman Agha, leading a side for the first time in any senior red-ball match, was bowled and then Ali Usman was trapped leg before first ball by a delivery timed at 91mph.

Josh Tongue appeals successfully against Ali Usman to claim his second wicket with successive deliveries (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

But just when the near capacity Headingley crowd were anticipating what would have been only the fourth Test ‘hat-trick’ in the long history of this famous old ground, the umpires decided it was time to pop off for a sandwich and a cup of tea.

Food breaks are, of course, sacrosanct in cricket and the regulations say that if a wicket falls in the over before an interval then tea — or lunch — has to be taken and the over completed afterwards. But, curiously, here the umpires only came off after the second wicket fell to the fourth ball of Tongue’s over as the clock struck 4.40pm, leaving spectators to wait 20 minutes to see whether a piece of Test cricket history would be made.

As it was there was to be no third wicket in three balls, only the anti-climax of Pakistan’s No 9 Khurram Shahzad smashing the hat-trick ball through the covers for four.

Tongue, though, has a pleasing habit of hoovering up lower order wickets — or eating rabbit pie as it is sometimes known in cricket — and he ended up with five wickets of his own, bowling last man Mohammad Abbas as Pakistan were dismissed for 171.

It was the first time two England bowlers had shared 10 wickets in a Test innings since Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar took five each, also against Pakistan, at Old Trafford in 2006. Robinson and Tongue walked off ahead of the England team together, virtually hand in hand, with the only question being who would keep the ball as a souvenir of their joint efforts.

Will Gay’s technical flaw hold him back?

This was the perfect illustration of Emilio Gay’s fledgling Test career.

The Durham opener came into the first Test under pressure on the back of a pair – two scores of nought in the same match – against this same Pakistan attack in their warm-up game against a Professional County Club Select XI at Beckenham last week. But there were hints of David Gower and Moeen Ali, two of England’s most elegant left-handed batters, in the way the opener caressed seven fours on his way to 33 off 31 balls.

It was then that a technical flaw which has been exposed in Gay’s fledgling Test career — a stint in the national side that admittedly began with two half-centuries in the series against New Zealand earlier this summer — led to his downfall again.

Gay tends to get squared up just outside his off stump and turns his body into a sort of contorted ‘S’ shape, as he did here before edging Mohammad Ali’s short ball to slip.

Emilio Gay looks to the heavens after being dismissed for 33 (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

It is, said his fellow southpaw Mark Butcher on Sky Sports, a common problem for left-handers but it is one Gay will have to overcome if he is to have a long Test career. Otherwise he will go the way of the last Durham opener to play Test cricket — Alex Lees averaged 23.84 across 10 matches — and find himself just a little short of the very highest level.

There had been a feisty start to the England innings when Pakistan gave Ben Duckett, who had already survived a mightily close leg before shout by the narrowest of umpire’s calls, a send-off after he was dismissed by Mohammad Abbas for 15.

But this remained very much England’s day. Their new-and-old captain Root and Jordan Cox, given the chance to establish himself at No 3 in the absence of the injured Jacob Bethell, took England to 112-2 by the close, just 59 behind Pakistan after an eventful start to this lower World Test Championship table clash.