Captain dependable Joe Root hits another landmark score for England | Ali Martin

Nestled within Joe Root’s serene cruise to a 13th Test century was an England record that has stood for 46 years. At 5.10pm, with the sun still shining in Birmingham and the fuchsia pink Duke ball just 34 overs young, he swished a cut off Jason Holder over the slips for four.

The shot may not have been one of total control – the despairing groan from Holder was more instructive than Edgbaston’s cheer – but with it England’s new captain had passed 50 for the 11th Test match in succession, overtaking the run of 10 that John Edrich completed in Sydney at the end of the victorious 1970-71 Ashes campaign.

Even if Root does not make a half-century at Headingley next week to equal the all-time tally of 12 in a row by AB de Villiers set in 2014, he has already demonstrated just how dependable he has become, while providing additional reassurance that the burdens of leadership need not disrupt a batsman (even if England captains of late tend to start with a surge).

When Root said before the Test that his net sessions have been predominantly against the new ball, it was hard not to raise half a smile at the fact this has mirrored much of his recent Test career. Even the move to No4 this summer, at his insistence and contrary to the preference of the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, has not been able to keep him away from lacquered leather.

Arriving at the crease at 2.36pm would normally suggest a handy start but in this brave new world of day-night Test cricket, that was only the eighth over of the match and England were 39 for two, having lost Tom Westley to a plumb lbw induced by Miguel Cummins that was somehow not given on the field but technology soon rightly corrected. If this demise for eight was one that will not quell some of the chuntering about the No3’s off-stump guard and leg-side game – the Essex right-hander’s temperament looks solid, he only needs a score – few conclusions could be drawn about Mark Stoneman on his debut, after he was sent packing for the same score by a beauty from Kemar Roach.

The perennial issue that sees Alastair Cook now only four short of Sunil Gavaskar’s record 19 opening partners was never going to be solved on day one of this Test and though he started in breezy fashion, crunching fours either side of the wicket as Roach’s radar started erratically, there was little Stoneman could have done to keep out the bullet with his name on it.

From his 5ft 8in frame, Roach’s natural angle is to push the ball across the bows of the left-hander from over the wicket. But with the first ball of his second over he got just a smidgeon of movement into Stoneman before it jagged away off a good length and trimmed the bails with a delicate plink that left an Edgbaston crowd that was still settling somewhat dumbstruck.

Roach’s comeback here after a year out of Test cricket is heartening, even if the 90mph he used to regularly exceed has dropped down a touch through a succession of injuries and a confidence-knocking car accident in 2014 that, despite 15 of his 38 caps having come since, was still referenced by his head coach, Stuart Law, in the build-up to this match.

The chunky gold chain that bounces around his neck remains but gone is the tearaway quick who put Ricky Ponting in a Perth hospital in 2009 with a blow to the elbow that induced the Australian great’s one and only retired hurt (Roach has since claimed this was the beginning of the end for Ponting, a theory supported by pre- and post-thunderbolt averages of 55 and 36).

In his place is a bowler more reliant on skill and guile, as witnessed by the removal of Stoneman or the ball that jagged back and cut Root in half on 92, and one that, as the senior player by appearances, can be seen passing what he has learnt to his team-mates during net sessions in support of their bowling coach Roddy Estwick.

But as Root and Cook cruised through an unbroken middle session of 107 runs in unflustered style, it was already starting to look ominous for Roach and his colleagues in this series.