If anything, the weather was too good. Even in a full Trent Bridge, if you closed your eyes you could almost have been on your own, such was the hush that settled over the crowd in the opening stages of the second day. Some 17,000 supporters simmered silently in the sunshine, perhaps wondering whether, if they could eliminate all distractions and just focus hard enough, they might somehow stop themselves sweating, pores puckered through sheer force of will.
For a while England got little encouragement from the stands, and none at all from the pitch. CricViz analysis showed the new ball swung less than in any Test in this country for a decade. In related news, this is the first Test in this country since 2012 to be played without both Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. In their absence Chris Woakes opened the bowling; the 35-year-old is often underestimated, including by the current England set-up – who left him out of the first two Ashes Tests last summer only for him to come back and win player of the series – but his first spell here was punishing toil, on a flat pitch with an unhelpful ball clad in full, crisp lacquer, and not only was he hooked after five unpromising overs, he was not seen again all morning.
