Root and Woakes power England past 400

England 427 for 5 (Root 185*, Stokes 6*) v PakistanScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Joe Root, having put his Test summer back on course on the opening day of the Old Trafford Test, reasserted his resolve on the second as England sought to pile up an impregnable first innings score against Pakistan.

By lunch, Root was 185 not out, 15 runs short of adding to the Test double hundred he made against Sri Lanka at Lord’s two years ago. He began the Test having converted only one of his last 10 Test half-centuries into hundreds and he was in the mood to make someone pay.

Root has reined in the more inventive side of his game in this Test and he also had one moment of fortune – the sort of luck he had complained in the build-up to the Test that he had been lacking. On 143, he botched a pull against Mohammad Amir, the sort of stroke that caused his downfall at Lord’s, but the ball fell short of the fielder. Root and Amir smiled as if sharing a private joke.

Pakistan will be concerned over the workload being undertaken by a four-strong attack, especially with Amir needing treatment on what seemed to be a jarred knee on a hard, unforgiving …

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