After all the sickness bug drama of the previous day, England did not so much head for the traps as positively fly out of them. Their first day of Test cricket in Pakistan for 17 years had the digits on the scoreboard in Rawalpindi spinning like the wheels on a fruit machine, the cherries appearing on the middle of English willow as a succession of records tumbled.
At the close, as the woozy winter sun made its final descent, the tourists had made a quite remarkable 506 for four from 75 overs and all those wondering how their new approach would fare on its first overseas assignment had an answer. Four centurions in a day for the first time – Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Book – and all but one, Duckett, quicker than a run a ball. Their appetite was clearly unaffected.
