England's summer excitement dissipates on second day against Pakistan at Lord's

England arrived at Lord’s full of optimism, their grim winter in the rearview mirror. The bloke selecting the team was different, and so were his methods and manner. The personnel changes he made were not extensive, but they were important. Back came one exciting talent, in came another.

For three days in the buildup, they fizzed and frothed. Jos Buttler and Dom Bess spoke of their excitement at being there at all, while Joe Root gave a rousing pep talk when they met up on Sunday. They all resolved to be fitter and train harder, and appeared genuinely enthused about the summer ahead. There seemed good reason for that mood.

Two days in to the summer, and that mood has rather dissipated. The first Test is not quite gone, but they must bat brilliantly in their second innings to save it. They are facing a first innings deficit close to 200 and a number of players will spend the second half of the game fighting for their places. Mark Stoneman might have been relieved the bowlers were unable to finish Pakistan off on the third evening. Dawid Malan faces a defining day too.

The bowlers were good. Excellent in patches. They repeatedly drew chances and beat the outside edge. James Anderson grew into the innings, while Stuart Broad was taking the ball away from Pakistan’s right-handers, and he is a completely different bowler when he does that. Ben Stokes and Mark Wood alternated as England’s enforcers with decent results, and Dom Bess was tidy if a little inert. He will be better for an experience he is so clearly relishing.

Between them, with three each for Anderson and Stokes, they took seven wickets on the second day. Stokes also forced Babar Azam, who had played with punch and panache, to retire hurt.

Azam was one of four Pakistan batsmen to make a half-century as they kept coming at England, who were unable to take wickets in clusters. The fall of Azam brought together No7 Shadab Khan – who, at 19, is already quite a cricketer – and the stylish No8 Faheem Ashraf. They put on 91.

As they had on the first evening (when Ben Stokes dived across Dawid Malan and dropped Haris Sohail), chances came and went for England. At first slip Alastair Cook shelled a tough one and dropped a simple one. Another flew between he and Jonny Bairstow. Jos Buttler dived athletically to his left at gully, and his parry just evaded Malan.

In that case, Asad Shafiq’s edge found second slip Malan off the very next ball, which felt symptomatic of England’s day. None of these drops were desperately costly, but they all add up. They contribute, too, to the sense that England are a little ragged, and a little imprecise. They have dropped five catches and, early in the day, Dom Bess could have pulled off two - very tough - run outs, too.

Poor fielding deflates teams and fans more than bad bowling or batting. Any more bad batting, and this game will be gone and they will spend their summer playing catch up.