England's Nearly Men Turn Headingley Gloom Into a 195-Run Lead

Four batters reached fifty at Headingley on Thursday. None of them reached a hundred. And yet by the time bad light and Ali Usman's fifth wicket ended a shortened second day, England had turned a Pakistan total of 171 into a lead of 195, scoring at 4.5 runs per over through rain delays, gloom and floodlights that stayed on all afternoon. The story of day two of the first Rothesay Test was not really about milestones missed. It was about how comfortably England absorbed the loss of them.

A reprieve, then a statement

Harry Brook's 91 was the innings that mattered most, and it very nearly did not happen. Dropped on one at second slip by Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha off Khurram Shahzad, Brook made the most of the let-off in a way that underlined exactly why he is vice-captain rather than a peripheral figure in Root's new era, despite being overlooked for the top job itself. The BBC's Stephan Shemilt notes that had Brook been dismissed, England would have lost three wickets for seven runs, with the score on 205-4 and only wicketkeeper Jamie Smith to come before the bowlers. Instead, the world's number-one ranked batter cashed in, treating a Mohammad Ali plan of 78mph bouncers with a savage pull for four and mixing that power with deft guides to third man.

He fell in the final half hour before the close, missing an attempted whip into the leg side off Usman and losing his stumps for 91. It is the second time in as many Tests that Brook has been dismissed in the 90s at his home ground, having made 99 against India here last year. Speaking to BBC Sport last week, Brook acknowledged he had given some supporters cause for frustration, admitted he is not the finished article as a Test batter, and promised to work harder at recognising the right situations to unleash his shots. Thursday's 91 was closer to that promise than most of his recent innings, even if the outcome, another dismissal in sight of three figures, was familiar.

Cox and Lawrence: auditions, not certainties

Jordan Cox and Dan Lawrence both made runs that will please them without settling anything. Cox, resuming on 23 not out, struck three fours in a single Shahzad over and reached his maiden Test half-century with a flick fine off Mohammad Abbas. He should have been caught for 57 when he patted a return catch back to Shahzad; the reprieve may even have disrupted his concentration, because the delivery that did end his 73 was, by Shemilt's description, an innocuous one from Usman that turned and took the edge through to the wicketkeeper.

Lawrence, playing his fourth stint of Test cricket after being recalled to fill the void left by Ben Stokes's retirement, made 51 with on-drives off the seamers and sweeps off the spinners, before one sweep too many at Usman produced a skied top edge. Cox's opportunity at number three exists because of Jacob Bethell's knee injury, and Bethell is set to return once fit. Sam Curran, meanwhile, has been named as a possible long-term replacement for Stokes, though his own recall hopes have reportedly been dashed by surgery. That context matters: both Cox and Lawrence made individually impressive scores on Thursday, but neither produced the innings that removes them from the selectors' thinking altogether. Both, in Shemilt's phrase, will need more.

Root's frustration and a partnership cut short

Before either man's dismissal, Root and Cox had put together a third-wicket stand of 150 that threatened to define the day. Root looked set to mark what the BBC describes as the beginning of his second spell as England captain with a century, only for Cox to feather behind off Usman's left-arm spin for 73. Four balls later, Root was gone too, lbw to Khurram Shahzad for 66 after playing across the line, a dismissal Shemilt reports left the captain visibly angry with himself. Two batters, one partnership, four balls apart, and both walked off short of three figures.

It is a pattern worth sitting with. England did not lose momentum because Root and Cox fell so close together; they lost two set batters without losing control of the match. A stand of 120 between Brook and Lawrence followed almost immediately, which is the clearest evidence that this is a batting order with enough depth to survive individual near-misses without the innings stalling.

Usman's five and Pakistan's faint hope

If there is a counter-argument to England's dominance, it belongs to Ali Usman. After removing Brook, the left-arm spinner accounted for Gus Atkinson and Ollie Robinson in successive balls to claim a maiden Test five-wicket haul, finishing with figures of 5-92. It was the one passage of the innings where Pakistan looked capable of turning gloomy conditions into genuine pressure, rather than simply watching England capitalise on the bad balls Pakistan's attack kept offering up. Usman's spell is a reminder that the tourists have at least one bowler capable of troubling this order on a used pitch, even if his colleagues could not find similar answers.

Why the conditions made this more impressive, not less

Morning rain delayed the start until 14:45 BST, and the clouds and floodlights that followed were, in theory, exactly the conditions Pakistan's seamers should have thrived in. Umpire Allahuddien Paleker officiated in gloves; England's backroom staff huddled on the dressing-room balcony in thick coats. Instead of exploiting the gloom, Pakistan's attack was put to the sword at 4.5 runs per over. Having already been dismissed for 171 on day one, Shafique's 61 aside, with Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson taking five wickets apiece, Pakistan then watched England move from 112-2 overnight to 366-8, a lead that could be enough to beat the tourists inside three days, according to Shemilt. For a side with home advantage and a damp pitch on their side, the numbers on the board tell their own story.

What Thursday actually settled

Brook's innings will be filed, fairly, as another one that got away in the 90s. But the more relevant fact by the close of day two was the position on the board, not the personal milestone missed. England are 195 runs ahead with two wickets in hand and the conditions still nominally in Pakistan's favour. Root's captaincy return, Cox's audition at three, and Lawrence's fourth chance at Test cricket all produced starts rather than statements. Collectively, though, those starts were enough to put England in complete command of a Test that the weather was supposed to help even up.

Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: BBC Sport's original report.