England's careless batting leaves Joe Root short on opening day of Pakistan Test at Lord's

When Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat on the first day of a bright new dawn for his beleaguered Test team, he would have wanted fewer than 11 wickets to fall in the day and a little more than a lead of 134.

That is what he has been left with, though. Through some careless batting against some excellent bowling, his team were gone in 58 overs – a little better than gone for 58 runs, as they were in the first innings of their last series, it is worth adding – before Pakistan made a far steadier start to their innings.

Root had spoken to the groundsman before play, who told him that despite the green tinge the surface was hard, good for batting and would take spin later on. The weather, murky and mizzly early on, was improving fast and expected to get better still throughout the day. Root’s reasoning was sound enough, England’s batting techniques were not. This time it was lateral movement, not pace or bounce or spin, that was their undoing. In conditions as English as they come, excuses are in short supply.

Alastair Cook made 70 (the first time he has reached 40 and not made 240 in 10 Tests), and the gallivanting middle order made starts, but the first three wickets fell for 31 and the last five went down for 16, to leave it all worth little. Sound familiar?

That second collapse was particularly frustrating. Time was – as recently as last summer – that England were known for batting depth that would bail out top order woes. The last five wickets fell in five overs shortly after tea, having had the tantalising prospect of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler together at the crease. Buttler bristled briefly, providing just the briefest glimpse of what is possible with him at No7, before throwing it away two balls after Stokes was out.

Mark Stoneman, Jonny Bairstow and eventually even Cook made good balls look belters, and were bowled. Root and Jos Buttler were wild on the drive and caught behind the wicket (it is worth wondering when Buttler last batted with a second slip in place). Dawid Malan, as he has tended to be outside Australia, was caught on the crease. It was all just rather wasteful.

Pakistan, though, were excellent. The bustling, rubbery-wristed duo of Mohammad Abbas – a delightfully subtle bowler who now 36 wickets in seven Tests at 17 – and Hasan Ali took four wickets each and did not fear swapping ends, as first-time visitors often are here. Pakistan have come to England with more storied attacks, but this lot are highly skilled.

Mohammad Amir, the one bowler who has been to Lord’s before – and how – was not at his best, but prised out Cook, the key wicket. This was the fourth time Amir had castled Cook, more than twice as many as any other bowler. Cook’s was the fifth wicket to fall, and England were all out 11 overs later. Amir’s was a vital breakthrough.

So too was Faheem Ashraf’s. He had looked innocuous in his morning session spell, but returned after lunch and struck with his first ball, catching Bairstow by surprise with one that just left him enough. Pakistan caught well too, which is never a given.

While Stokes flickered before being dismissed lbw on review, it was really only the performance of two old faithfuls, Cook and Stuart Broad, that will have pleased England. Broad has said for weeks that he feels zippy, and he looked it late on. Imam-ul-Haq’s wicket, lbw on review, was his reward.

Cook was better still. By lunch the full repertoire – a limited (but effective) one, admittedly – had been on show: the pull, the nudge to leg, the off-side guide, even drives both straight and down the ground. The fluency of his feet had returned and, pleasingly, he left well.

Dom Bess looked to enjoy his first day in Test cricket, while three of Mark Wood’s first four overs were maidens, which is encouraging; he knows, though, that if he is to keep Chris Woakes out of the side he needs wickets, not maidens. The sight of Stokes diving across Dawid Malan at second slip and shelling Haris Sohail’s leading edge late in the day, will have hurt Wood. His bowling average cannot remain in the forties for too long.

Like many of Root’s side, he has much to prove, and little time to prove it.