First Rothesay Test, Headingley (day one of five)

Pakistan 171 all out: Shafique 61; Tongue 5-46, Robinson 5-51

England 112-2: Root 37*, Gay 33; Abbas 1-34

England are 59 runs behind

Scorecard

Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue each took five wickets to give Joe Root the ideal start to his second spell as England captain as Pakistan were skittled for 171 on the opening day of the series at Headingley.

Returning four years after his first stint as skipper left him and his team broken, Root’s leadership was barely tested thanks to the excellence of his bowlers and fragility of the Pakistan batting.

Root won the toss, pounced on the opportunity to bowl first and Robinson set the tone by pinning Azan Awais leg before with the first ball of the match.

Robinson expertly exploited the movement on offer, relentlessly hitting a full length for his 5-51.

Tongue took longer to warm to his task but when he also found the correct length, he was also too much for Pakistan to handle. Tongue’s 5-46 ended with a final devastating burst of 4-5 from 11 balls.

England needed only 48.1 overs to dismiss the tourists and would have been done more quickly had it not been for 61 from Abdullah Shafique, 42 by Imam-ul-Haq and a near-two-hour rain delay.

It was not all plain sailing for the home side, who lost openers Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay to find themselves 48-2 in the reply.

Captain or not, Root is so often the man to steady England’s batting, and he has said his team will not be wedded to a style of play.

In the company of Jordan Cox, who is at number three in place of the injured Jacob Bethell, Root calmly took the hosts to 112-2, 59 behind.

After the chaos of Ben Stokes’ retirement and the sacking of Brendon McCullum, England are in a strange holding pattern. The new era does not begin in earnest until Stephen Fleming takes up his post as coach in the winter.

Root has the immediate task of improving the results of a team that has won only two of its previous 10 matches. This was a strong step in the right direction.

Pakistan have not won a series in this country for 30 years. There is a suspicion that little can be learned about England’s fresh start because of the quality of this Pakistan team, especially a batting line-up without injured captain Babar Azam. Wednesday did little to quell that suspicion.

How different was this to the Bazball era? Root, like Stokes, posted himself at mid-off, but did not march around and marshall the field like his predecessor. Much like Stokes, Root was happy to post plenty of fielders in catching positions, though that can be attributed to the match situation.

Perhaps there was a time when the atmosphere felt flat, particularly when Imam and Shafique were adding 91 for the third wicket. Headingley gradually came to life after Tongue removed Imam, and the crowd gave home favourite Root a warm welcome before revelling in his late-evening progress.

Rain is forecast for much of Thursday and much of Friday, though England’s first-day efforts have already given them ample time to begin Root’s second reign with victory.

Robinson and Tongue have different stories from the Bazball era. Tongue was identified as an England bowler partly because of his speed, while Robinson was ignored for a long period for his lack of pace and questions over his fitness.

On this occasion, Tongue was England’s fastest bowler, averaging 87.1mph, while Robinson was England’s slowest at 78.4mph. As Gus Atkinson and Jofra Archer struggled, Tongue and Robinson because the first pair of England bowlers to claim five wickets in the same Test innings for 20 years.

For Robinson, this was a second five-for in as many matches since he made his Test comeback against New Zealand in June, and came days after he and wife Mia celebrated the birth of their first child.

His control was magnificent, often with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith up to the stumps. The first-ball dismissal of Awais was the first of Robinson’s three lbws, all against left-handers. He got the crucial wicket of Shafique, bowled by a nip-backer, and completed his five when Khurram Shahzad hoiked to mid-on.

Like Atkinson and Archer, Tongue began like a bowler who had been playing in The Hundred for the past month. When he finally went full to draw Imam into an edge to second slip, Tongue did not look back.

Tongue was the architect of Pakistan losing their last five wickets for 21 runs. Stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha was cleaned up, Ali Usman and Mohammed Rizwan were lbw – the latter on a marginal DRS – and Mohammed Abbas lost his off stump.

The only question was which of Tongue or Robinson got to keep the ball, a problem solved by the groundsman being asked to cut it in half so each bowler could take a piece.

This was confirmation Pakistan’s batting is vulnerable and their bowlers have the skills to challenge England’s shaky top order.

The tourists are hampered by Babar’s hand injury, and stand-in captain Salman said he would have batted had he won the toss. Saud Shakeel was too late calling for a review when given lbw to Robinson, only for replays to show the ball would have gone over the stumps – one of several marginal decisions that went England’s way.

Pakistan were at risk of being overwhelmed when Duckett and Gay made a Bazball-style start to England’s reply.

Still, Abbas is a superb operator in the Robinson mould. He was unlucky not to have Duckett lbw in the first over, then was not denied when he pinned the England opener on the shin.

Gay needs to establish himself at the top of the England order and played handsome drives in his 33 before poking Mohammad Ali to second slip. The left-hander looks susceptible to the ball angled across him.

England could have wobbled, only for Cox to show good temperament for his unbeaten 23, while Root was typically assured for his 37. They both have an opportunity to make a significant score.