England got a taste of their own marvellous medicine as mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed cast his spell and hooked seven wickets on debut.
The bespectacled 24-year-old wheeled away in delight each time he bamboozled an England batsman on his way to 7-114, the 3rd best bowling figures for a Pakistani bowler on debut and the 12th best overall. At one stage it looked as though he might even have taken all 10 with his leg spin and wizardry variations that out-foxed Zak Crawley, Joe Root and Ben Stokes with great skill.
But fellow leggie Zahid Mahmood snuck in at the back end of the innings to poach the last three to ensure that all ten wickets fell to leg spin for the first time in a Test since Anil Kumble actually took them all on his own in 1999.
As tricky as England found the challenge of facing a brand new bowler, they hardly went quietly, smacking 281 at a run rate of 5.43 to make sure that their gung-ho style gave them something to work with. And with Mark Wood working up to a speed of 97.3 mph on his first Test appearance since March, England will feel as though they have got more than a foothold in this game.
Abrar bowled beautifully for his rewards, but he took plenty of tap too, as England continued to use attack as their best form of defence on a pitch that was taking plenty of turn. He has followed in a long line of mystery Pakistani spinners with two of the most effective, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Ajmal, claiming equally impressive figures against England in the past 30 years.
But they have come about either when England ground out a score such as when they made 480 in 196 overs in an obvious draw against Saqlain’s 8-164 in 2000. Or they have folded rather meekly as they did against Ajmal’s 7-55 in 2012 when they rustled up 192 all out in 72 overs in a heavy defeat.
Here they have a score, and there is plenty of time in the game to force a result by bowling last, and by the close of day one, control of the game remained up for grabs with Pakistan captain Babar Azam still there having passed fifty.
There might be the odd grumble with the way England lost some of their wickets, Harry Brook ten minutes before lunch for example, but this is their method, and they are committing to it come hell or high water.
And it was far from a disaster with both Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope passing fifty thanks to their sweeping talents, on either leg. It was bold batting by England, but Abrar was just as brave and just as skilled in tossing the ball up and giving it a chance to spin and it worked as Duckett, then Root were defeated, before Pope and Brook followed for the five-wicket haul at lunch on a pitch that had lots more help than the last.
It is why England opened bowling in response with Jack Leach, who grabbed one wicket, but also dropped too short too often and was punished. James Anderson took the other, while Wood huffed and puffed at pace but without success. Pakistan are still playing catch up, but they now have a big weapon to help them.
