Cook and Root restate basic values for England

England 95 for 1 ( Root 41*, Cook 40*) v PakistanLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

For England, the start of the Old Trafford Test felt like a chance to restate basic values, an opportunity to eradicate the slackness that had characterised their batting during their 75-run defeat at Lord’s. By lunch on the first day, the early returns were good, 95 on the board and their leading lights, Alastair Cook and Joe Root, bedding in with conviction.

Alex Hales was the England batsman to fall, his progress in the series against Sri Lanka so far stilled in this series by a Pakistan left-arm pace attack of higher quality. Hales was cleaned up by Mohammad Amir, a ball that might have been driveable had his footwork possessed more conviction and it not swung in with pace and malice to bowl him through the gate.

By then, Hales had been given a bit of a going-over. A leave against Rahat Ali was perilously close, an lbw appeal resulting from a Rahat inswinger also adjacent, and three balls before his dismissal a boundary against Amir burst through gully’s hands. This is an examination of far greater intensity than the one provided by the Sri Lankan attack that Sanath Jayasuiriya risibly billed as the best in the world.

Amir had received a gracious welcome at Lord’s on his return to Test cricket and the sense of a sentence …

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