Abbas masterclass as Smith stars on day 1

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You're listening to the TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

Let's look back on the first day of the Test match here at Lord's between Pakistan and England, a day that belongs perhaps to neither side or both sides. Total contrast to the entirety of the Headingley Test match where the game never fluctuated once. It was grabbed hold of by England and then they kept they. Grip on it all the way through from the first ball to the last. Here, Pakistan upon winning the toss—a good toss to win on what turned out to be quite a lively pitch under grey skies. We had a very gloomy morning. There's a lot of rain around, and they made initially the most of that with breakthroughs for Mohammed Abbas. He picked up three early wickets, and England have closed though at 248 for nine. It's very hard to know exactly whether that's a good score, a medium score, or bad score. But luckily, I've got Pakistan international cricketer Rameez Raja. I've got England captain Mike Vaughan. I've got Jonathan Agnew alongside me to chew the cud. Uh, Jonathan, I'll start with you first. 248 for 9, that, that is a middling score or a good score?

What is it? Yeah, I think Pakistan look back at it at a bit of a missed opportunity. 70-odd for 4 with Root and Brook out, uh, that was an opportunity, wasn't it? The ball nibbling about. I mean, it was so humid and oppressive and heavy out there when Babar Azam won the toss. It was— they were perfect bowling conditions, grass in the pitch, and, and pretty decent attack session with Mohammad Abbas, one of the best in the business probably for exploiting that. So to get 4 down and those 2 out, I, I think that Pakistan might think they've just missed, missed a chance. So they, they missed a couple of catches on the way through, um, but that, that I think they, they, they might have felt they could have bowled England out for 170 from, from there. And the 2 the 2 big players out. So I think I'm, I'm giving the day to England actually, just— I mean, only, only narrowly, but I think that they'll— from having been from that position to get where they are, I think they'll be pretty happy with that.

Lunch at 80 for 4, Ramiz, and, uh, you must have been absolutely delighted because it was doom and gloom at Headingley. How have you assessed how Pakistan have bounced back in this game?

I think they've done reasonably well because let's not forget, I mean, it's a medium-paced bowling attack, so once The shine is off the new ball, then it becomes difficult for them to roll over teams. That has been the pattern. So they'd be pretty happy with 248 for 9, um, because yes, they had opportunity, window of opportunity, and obviously, you know, it was good batting from England in that period where runs had dried up, but they batted sensibly. So I mean, from where they were on day 1 at Headingley to 248 for 9, they'd be pretty happy with it actually.

I mean, you mentioned runs dried up, Rameez. Uh, Michael, is this what post-Baz ball looks like? Because at 80 for 4, uh, Jordan Cox had got 38 off 38 at that point, and there'd been a bit of a counter-attack despite the wickets falling. And then after lunch, there was a quite definite go slow. Uh, Jordan Cox at that point got 6 runs off his next 48 balls. He was joined by Dan Lawrence, who ended up with 17 off 41. They did dig in, didn't they? And that's it. That didn't seem like we've ever seen that in the last 4 years.

No, I mean, I, I think you look at the day's play and I think England will be absolutely delighted to get to 248 from 70 for 4. Um, I agree with that because I think Pakistan will probably not accept in that dressing room at the minute that they've missed chances and they've kind of let a, a good situation kind of roll away from them. But, you know, I think Jordan Cox looks a fine player. He looks like a very well-balanced, um, He looks to me like he's got the right shots to the better bowlers, which is going to be important when he comes against better attacks. He seems to have the calmness about him. He'd be disappointed to get out because he got to 50-odd last week and got out. He got to 50-odd this week and gets out. And your currency is hundreds, you know, whoever you play for. But, you know, I get a feeling that 248, I think that's quite a big score on this kind of pitch. You mentioned Pakistan at Headley didn't get past 200. Well, they're going to have to get past 200 in the first innings to put the England side under pressure. I just think that extra little bit of pace— Mohammad Ali bowled a little spell in the afternoon when he started to bowl a bit quicker and he, he started to get the ball zipping through, and I just thought, oh, wait a minute, when Joffrey's doing that tomorrow and when Josh Tong's doing that tomorrow and Gus Atkinson's doing that tomorrow and Ollie Robinson, we know with the new ball, will be a major threat. I think there's, uh, there's plenty in this wicket, uh, and I would give this— I wouldn't say that they're a long way ahead of the game, England, but I think they're ahead of the game by the fact that they've got 248 And it was really down to Jamie Smith because Jamie Smith came out and played like the Jamie Smith that we saw at the start of his Test career. Just made it look very, very easy, both sides of the wicket really beautifully balanced. And that innings today for Jamie Smith, I mean, there's been— I've read a few articles that, you know, there's a bit of a question mark over Jamie Smith. I don't see that at all in terms of his position in the side. I have watched his keeping. We spoke to Sarah Taylor pre-match this morning, just basically congratulated her. You're doing a great job with Jamie Smith because his keeping's rock solid. You're always going to go through little periods in your Test career where you don't quite get the runs, but what I saw in terms of balance today from Jamie Smith, that leg-side flick— I always think when he's playing that leg-side flick, he's in a really good position with his head, and he was the key for England today getting to that 248.

A batter who makes flying starts to their careers, as he did, um, you're gonna, you're gonna have a dip. You are gonna have a dip, and it's how you come out of that dip, isn't it? And I like the fact that his keeping definitely has been worked on and looks really solid, because all-rounders usually batsmen and bowling all-rounders, aren't they? But if one aspect of the game goes well, it generally means that actually the other part does too, because you relax a bit and you're not searching, you're not looking for them, trying to find form or whatever it may be. But one does tend to complement the other, and I think it's no surprise that he kept wicket really well at Headingley standing up. Not easy. He's working very hard with Sarah Taylor. We've seen that. And now he's Scored some nice runs too. That's not a coincidence, I think.

What I want to highlight though is that it was two Test matches ago we were at Trent Bridge, and that was after an incident. We've this is a Test match straight after an incident. The way England played at Trent Bridge was almost insane. I mean, on the last couple of days, it was insane. Well, it was. Yes, it was. It was. It was almost like burning down the church, wasn't it? Yeah. Do you think that the The way England batted today is the way that Joe Root wants England to be batting.

Yes, and it was at Headingley as well. I think the way they played at Headingley was the Joe Root blueprint.

And is that the right one for Test cricket?

Yes, of course, absolutely it is. You know, when you— I think one of the main criticisms of the last couple of years has been that there has been absolutely no thought of actually getting into the trenches of it. And, and, and soaking up some pressure and, and putting pressure on the opposition that way rather than just blazing away and trying to, trying to hack yourself out of trouble. This is how you do it in Test cricket. You get your head down, you work hard.

Well, you know, it's intriguing that you're saying that this is a, a new style of play, and I understand where you're coming from because we saw a dogged England batting display mid-afternoon when they suddenly started to bowl nicely. Pakistan, the left-arm spinner, bowled a terrific spell from the pavilion the Brazilian end. Mohammad Abbas started to bowl dots. You thought, oh, this is proper Test match cricket. They scored at 4.43 throughout the day. So they have players that— that has been the frustration really in Bazball, that because they have players that can catch up quickly, they don't have to always go on the ultra-aggressive approach. Because you can see off, particularly if you're playing Pakistan— again, I'm not disrespecting Mohammad Ali, bowled quite nicely at times today, and Khurram Shahzad. I think they're okay. But if you're playing Pakistan, you go see off Mohammad Abbas and the left-arm spinner on a pitch like this. He shouldn't be causing too many problems. He might 2 or 3 good overs and you're not going to score off him. But you kind of know the longer that you play against him, you will get a cut shot and you will get a pull shot because he's not going to be able to hang in on that length all day long. And that's the way that you play against this attack. So, um, I think a bit of sense, but the sensible side of batting at Headingley still scored at over 4.4s, and the sensible side of batting here at Lord's has scored at 4.43s.

So it was kind of in flurries though, wasn't it? That was what was interesting because it seemed to respond to the tempo, the requirements of I mean, Cox offered to run a ball, and then, and then he really dug in.

They bowled very well at him too. They set good fields. Um, they tried to put pressure on him that way, but he said, no, not having any of this. I'll just keep playing. And that's 5 days to play a Test match, you know. And so I'm much happier with this approach. It's, it's much more likely to bring success.

As for Pakistan, Ramiz, you must have been delighted by a lot of things worked, you know, the plan for getting out Joe Root. forcing him back into his crease. Rizwan up to the stumps quite early. The moment that Root was on strike, it was clear that was a plan that they were going to do, and it was executed perfectly. They got their wicket, they got their reviews right. Yeah, they looked like a much more cohesive team.

That's right, and that could be because they've got a leader back playing for them, so he's a regular leader, Babar Azam. That helps. Um, also, after winning the toss, the onus was on Pakistan to make it count, and I thought they were really focused in that first session. Only if they feel it a bit better. I mean, they allowed a couple of chances to slip through their hands, and that caused them a lot of— I mean, distress in a way, because it, it broke the rhythm. England were looking for a rhythm that was broken by some tight bowling, but England did not throw away that partnership by playing recklessly. I think that was the important phase of the day for me, where England just dug in you know, trench mentality, as Agus was saying, and making sure that the wickets do not fall. And then when the opportunity came, because once that ball got older, it became easier to bat. And that's the problem with Pakistan bowling attack. They do not have a 90-mile-an-hour guy who can come back and give you wickets after it's 50 overs old.

They've also only got 3 seamers. I mean, and it was interesting, I know someone, Ali Agar, is not a seamer, but he's another person who can bowl some overs. And the change in Pakistan's lineup today was Bob Azam came in for the man who'd captained in the previous Test and taken out another part-time bowler.

I mean, Saad Shaquille could have been made the 12th man. He didn't look that convincing in that last, but maybe they needed a left-hander out there. But Salman Aliyagha, I don't know how he's feeling. Maybe he opted out himself because his progress in Test cricket has been below par.

It's a very un-Pakistan bowling attack, this really, isn't it?

It is.

It's more like sort of Indian bowling attack of the 1970s.

Yeah, Madan Lal and Kirsten Gavri. Absolutely.

There's no reverse swing, there's no pace. Yeah, it's, it's, it's— you wouldn't—

so this is like, I mean, I, I remember, uh, who was the coach then? Uh, might have been Bob Woolmer. All right, so I met him. He had Mohammad Asif with him, and Asif hadn't played a single match for Pakistan, and he introduced me to Asif and he said He's going to be a great bowler. And my first question to Bob was, how fast is he? He says, around 130. I said, he can't be a fast bowler. I mean, Pakistan is renowned for pace. It's another thing that he became a great bowler because of that length that he bowled. But we're so used to seeing 90 miles an hour. And suddenly, this is— it puts me off completely watching Pakistan play cricket like this.

Because you're a captain.

Yeah, so I've been part of the teams where we absolutely— Derail opposition with sheer pace, you know, 95 miles an hour reverse swinging, yorkers, bouncers. I mean, the 2 lengths that we bowled was yorker and bouncer. There's no length bowling as such. There's no respite. There's no like, hang on a second, you know, we're gonna make sure that we don't leak runs in this session. Nothing of that sort. It was— we were on the attack all the time.

And this, this, Ramiz, is where the coaches, the captain, and the group have to get together as a whole and realize This is what they've got. Yeah. So how they're going to compete with what they have is— and I'm staggered that I keep watching and Mohammad Rizwan is reluctant to come up to the stumps. Yeah. That tactic has got Joe Root out 4 times this summer. Joe Root has been out LBW 8 times in his last 7 Test matches. Joe Root walks out there to face Mohammad Abbas and Rizwan's back. Yeah. I'm looking at that going, tactically, what are you doing?

He came up today though, didn't he?

But not right at the start. You know, he is reluctant to come up to the stumps. You know, Why isn't he up to the stumps to Karan Shahzad at times, to Muhammad Ali at times? You looked at Blundell for New Zealand. He was up to all their seamers. You know, Matt Henry's not slow, and he was up there because he knew it was the right tactic to deliver. And if Pakistan are going to continue to go with this kind of pace, with this kind of skill set, I think that's something that Rizwan's going to have to buy into for the team to become that kind of, that kind of leader of the gang. You know, you've got to create a theater, and I think You know, like I said, Brook and Joe Root have struggled with that tactic all summer, and, uh, they seem reluctant to try and produce it against this England side.

Michael Ramey, we need to let you both go because you have other duties to perform. Uh, just to run you through that scorecard, um, Amedi Oge is becoming a little bit of a concern. Uh, the manner of his dismissal, caught down the leg side, doesn't really indicate whether he's got a particular technical flaw, but his head's just going a bit.

Just his head is just going to that offside a bit. But he's got some lovely shots, you know. I mean, I really hope, I really hope he gets a score and breaks through because Because his offside strokes are beautiful.

He played a couple of lovely cover drives today, didn't he? Phil Tufnel's just joined us. Ben Duckett looked quite sprightly for his 17, and an amazing LBW decision. I mean, I don't think anybody watching it thought it was out, and then when we saw the replay, we thought it wasn't out, and then it turned out that this board defied the laws of physics. We're going to hit the top of off stump.

Computer says yes.

Poor old Ben Duckett wandered off shaking his head. Joe Root, we've discussed, uh, done basically by the ball, been doing him time and time again. Uh, Harry Brook played a pretty sort of measured knock again today. Uh, what— and batting—

A loose shot at the end.

A loose shot at the end, but batting in difficult conditions. Uh, Dan Lawrence, 17 off 41. You've mentioned Jamie Smith. There's a cameo from Gus Atkinson, a couple of quick wickets, and the best shot of the day, Joffre Archer, 6 into the pavilion. Probably, uh, tougher— is that, that That took our breath away, didn't it?

Well, absolutely. Just decided to pop out of the bunker and just pop him straight back over mid-off's head, wasn't it? Yeah, great shot. But, uh, yeah, I, I think though, I think they'll be happy, Pakistan. But just as you say, I was listening earlier to John, you know, just a slight missed opportunity. You always get the feeling when you see a fielding side where they sort of are, aren't they? Okay, there's a fantastic catch and a run out, but just a little bit sloppy in those areas. But a good day's cricket considering we thought it was going to be raining all day.

The TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

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But also from where they were, you see, this is the thing, and I do understand where you're coming from. 248 for 9 does feel on this surface with England's bowling attack and crucially with Pakistan's batting lineup that that's going to be, you know, quite a formidable score perhaps. But where Pakistan were, if we go back to the end of the Headingley Test, I mean, I was just reading nothing but despair. I was listening to poor Atif and Ramiz on air. I was reading Daniel Razul in Cricinfo at every Every article of his—I mean, I think the latest one finished with the word abyss, which was well described by Pakistan.

Opposed to Abbas. I think I'm interviewing tomorrow. Right.

Well, sometimes you need a little bit on your side, don't you? And Pakistan got that this morning. We were all thinking coming away from that. The only way that this Pakistan side can come back into this series is by winning the toss and on a bit of an overcast day and getting a few out. And that's what happened.

Well, one of the people who took those early wickets is with Alison Mitchell. She's with Muhammad Abbas. Mohammed, well bowled today.

You enjoy bowling here at Lord's, don't you?

Yeah, obviously this is my favourite ground. I played first Test match at 2018, so I was man of the match. So after that I came here with Leicestershire, so I'm always enjoying bowling here.

When the coin toss went up and Babar Azam had the choice, it sounded like it was a clear-cut decision to bowl first today.

Yes, I think the pitch was covered. The rain was early morning till almost midday, so that's why we were thinking, so we will choose bowlers.

Has the day gone according to your plan, albeit a couple of dropped catches, but the wickets kept falling?

Yeah, this is a part of cricket, so we are not remembering those things. So as a professional, we have to think, look forward, and just keep going.

And it must have felt like a bit of a dream score when you had England 4 down going into the lunch break.

Yes, we were very happy and we had a meeting upstairs. So our coach said just stick to the plan and bowl out as soon as possible. So we tried well, but I think they scored a little bit more. I think Smith played well, but still we are happy. So they are 9 down right now.

Joe Root is always a huge wicket to get. How much planning has gone into that idea of Mohammad Rizwan coming up to the stumps to Joe Root in particular?

Yeah, uh, he's a little bit struggling. He's a big player, so always, uh, when, uh, we are getting his wicket, so always, uh, very good for the opposition. So we had a plan about him and every player, so we was— we got success from there.

How is it that you get so much control over the ball? What is your particular attribute that enables you to move the ball in the way that you do?

To be honest, I played lots of cricket, almost 220 first-class cricket and around 30-odd Test matches. So we are playing domestic cricket in Pakistan in different cities and different conditions. So, and I, I am playing county cricket here in different conditions. So I took lots of things from there. So these things are helping me in Test cricket.

What do you think your biggest learnings have been from your stints with Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire?

Yes, it's been very good. I came first time with Leicestershire, so I played one game, then I played Test matches. After that, two years I spent there, and after that I played. I spent four years at Hampshire, so I took lots of experience from there. Our bowling attack was good, and last year I was more than happy because of we were the champion when I was with Nottinghamshire. Right now I am working with Mickey Arthur. He was with us when we played here. So I took experience from there. So I'm trying to give everything in Test cricket.

And are you able to pass some of that experience on to the other bowlers in your unit who perhaps haven't bowled so much in England?

Yes, I am as a senior. So I am thinking, so these guys are my small brothers. So I am giving the things who I get from first-class cricket and from county cricket. And just I am asking them so just assess the conditions and ball accordingly. Even we are just chatting with each other in practice and in the games as well.

And just looking ahead to tomorrow, it'll be the batters' opportunity. You felt that Jamie Smith batted well. England maybe got a few more than you would have liked today. What do you think the the batters will have learnt from watching the way England went about it today?

I just Spent time on the pitch. I think they took some experience from the last game as well. So they are thinking about the mistakes. They will learn and they will put score on the board. So then we can bowl again.

Good luck tomorrow. Well done today.

Thank you. That was Mohammad Abbas with Alison Mitchell. He seems pretty happy. He's the leader of the attack. He's got all these learnings from playing in county cricket. He's seen it all.

He's a character as well, isn't he? I love the fact There he is, 76, 77 miles an hour. He's chirping away at the batsmen. You know, it's like a little terrier, isn't he? He's there all the time and he's nibbling about on a length. Terrific bowler, really is.

Old speed of old school, John, really.

Yeah, you know, it's just, come on, we'll, uh, Derek Shackleton.

Yeah, I'll hit the top of off stump and what you're going to do about it.

So actually, also Mohammad Asif, which was mentioned by Ram earlier, similar pace, and he does most of his work in the last couple of yards, doesn't he? It's, it's what happens at the, at the end.

But I get back to the point you made, this is, this is a very un-Pakistan attack. I mean, how are they going to bowl people out in Pakistan on those pitches with an attack like this? You know, they've got some problems. Well, they've got to find some pace. Well, they've got to find some reverse swing. Yeah, no, absolutely.

I mean, I mean, the, the great bowlers from Pakistan didn't really use the surface, did they?

They sort of cut fast, full bang. They've all did it, all going all the way back to Asif Masood, uh, coming in off his bendy run down here. You know, he— they, they've always had fast bowlers. And they're not wrist spin as well.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, they baked the pitches the last time they played England, and that was how they decided it was going to work there. Sajid Khan and whatnot. But that's not going to work here, is it? No, no. Just just a quick word on the pitch though, because when we came here, there was the spectre of the pitch against New Zealand hanging over our heads. It's a very different looking surface, which was I'm not saying it's a surprise. You would expect it to be very different after all the hullabaloo, but We've had a very, very dry summer, and actually we turned up and found really quite a green, grassy pitch, didn't we?

Yeah, I mean, I, I do have a bit of a thing about pitches because there's, what, 20 pitches, probably more than that out there, and a groundsman can produce what he wants. So I, I've always felt a little bit awkward about data for, for runs on, on a pitch because it's probably a different pitch prepared in a different way to the one that was played on the year before. This is 3 strips away from the one that New Zealand was playing on, but it does look completely different. The one I really— I went out there for the toss for the New Zealand match, I thought, what is that? But of course they'd had, they'd had so much rain they couldn't get on it. I think it's more— I don't know anything about bigger grounds, but I suspect it's probably easier when you've had hot, hot dry weather but access to water, which Lord's clearly have because you can see it, because you can control things a bit more then, don't you? You can see a forecast, you know it's going to be dry, so therefore you're safe watering. But when there's this Rain and rain and rain. You don't know when it's not going to rain and when it's going to stop. I think that's probably more difficult as a groundsman to plot a Test match starting on that particular day. And that's, that's what they had against New Zealand. But it did look a— it did look a very odd strip, whereas this looks like a normal pitch to me, albeit with quite a lot of grass on it.

Lords, I found, having played here for 20-odd years, um, it goes through phases. Lords, you know, sometimes—

Like the human condition.

Well, yeah, no, it does. It sort of It changes Lords, you know, overhead conditions. You can almost feel it when there's a cloud brewing up. All of a sudden it does a little bit.

Well, it did, didn't it, later today when the clouds came over?

Yeah, so it's one of those pitches that's always had that little bit of slope on it, and so when there is just something that's not quite right, it seems to accentuate it, doesn't it? Yeah.

Um, but because a team got bowled out for 350 last year, yeah, doesn't mean to say someone's going to score 350 this year, does it? Absolutely. It's completely different. It is.

Every time you turn up to Lords, you, you're not quite sure where you go. I mean, I saw, you know, Joe Root got a fantastic 180 All those years ago, you know Smith getting double hundreds here. You know it goes through, it goes through sort of quiet periods, and then all of a sudden it just seems to come alive.

Do you think this is one of those ones that's going to get better like we saw in the World Test Championship final last year?

I'd like to. I mean, it might be a bit drier and a bit easier tomorrow. I'd have thought it, but there's rain again due on Wednesday or Saturday. So you just feel that this the weather actually could play quite a part. In, in the conditions for this match all the way through, given that there is quite a decent covering of green grass on there. I don't think we're going to see a, a brown strip at the end. I think it's always going to be nibbling around.

I think that's it.

When we saw— sorry, and we were commenting, and when we saw a lot of, a lot of shots that you're sort of looking to play through sort of like a mid-wicket or a mid-on that just all of a sudden sort of hit an outside edge and go to cover. So that might just be a little bit stoppy, so it might quicken up a little bit tomorrow.

I think it will.

Yeah. Well, before we say goodbye, we could get, um, Jamie Smith, who's been speaking to Alison Mitchell.

Jamie, well batted today. What was your assessment of the overall day for England?

Yeah, I guess overall it's been a good day for us. Being inserted on that surface, I think we knew that it'd be a little bit tricky. Lord's is always a bit tricky at times with the overhead conditions, and the ball seemed to do enough throughout the day's play there. And also credit to Pakistan, I thought they bowled nicely, took a few early wickets up top, which put us under a bit of pressure. But yeah, overall very pleased to be in that position.

What was the feeling at the lunch break when Harry Brook had just got out and you're 4 down early like that?

Well, the dressing room's always, you know, quite relaxed and quite, quite chilled. I think we sort of knew that there was enough in the surface, so I guess it was sort of a game plan to come up with from the batting unit who still had to bat there of how we're going to go about our innings and put a score on the board, knowing that, you know, when we, we come around to have a ball in hand, that there'll be enough in the surface hopefully that we can sort of look to exploit.

What was the key to success batting on that pitch in the way that you did?

Riding your luck a little bit at times, definitely. I think it's not the sort of surface where you sort of feel you're always in and you can go and play shots from sort of ball one. You have to sort of ride, ride it out a little bit at times, and you know you're going to play and miss and they're going to bowl some good balls. But when you sort of get the opportunity to score, you sort of have to make it count and I guess take a little bit of a risk at times to either drive a ball that might not be there or try and find some width somewhere to score off. Um, as I said, credit to Pakistan, they bowled really nicely and kept it quite tight throughout the day.

Your partnership with Jordan Cox was the best of the match. Do you feel you've got enough runs at the moment to have Pakistan feeling under pressure when it's their turn?

Yeah, I guess so. Anytime that, you know, you're 9 down and then the play— I hope you can eke out a little bit more of a partnership in the morning. Um, and then, yeah, as I said, it'd be quite crucial when we come to bowl that we can pick up early wickets and put them under a bit of pressure. It seems to be the best time to bowl, and it got slightly easier as the ball got a bit softer and the day went on. So yeah, hopefully we can make it count early on.

You had such a fast start to your career with the bat. Have you felt over the recent innings that, you know, you want to be getting some more big scores under your belt?

Yeah, it's been, it's been a well-registered fact, I guess, for myself that I haven't quite got the runs in it in a short period of time that I would have liked. So yeah, to get a 50 today and A little bit more rhythm in my batting. I think that was the most important thing. I didn't feel great at the start, and I feel I sort of built into it as the innings went on. So slightly disappointed to get out when I felt I was batting at my best, but, you know, to contribute and to put a score on the board is, is what you— what your currency is as a batsman. So it's nice to finish on 60.

Yeah, and to talk about your keeping as well, notable that Sarah Taylor's become part of the England setup, and she says she really enjoys working with you. Is the feeling mutual?

Yeah, absolutely. She's been fantastic. Since coming into the environment, I think everyone's really enjoyed working for her, not just me keeping-wise, but also the rest of the, you know, the fielding unit as well. But yeah, it's been great to work with her over a 6-match period, if you like, and also training camp so far. I feel like I've improved a little bit on my keeping so far, and hopefully it's a project we like to see it as, of saying hopefully in years to come that will keep improving. And at the moment it's showing small signs of that.

And what are those elements in particular? Around your keeping?

Look, I think that it's well documented that standing up to the stumps against seamers seems to be a tactic used by most at the moment. That's the trend that we're seeing. So trying to do that, which will hopefully, you know, help impact wickets. And that's the main thing, is how we can help the bowling unit take 20 wickets to win a Test match. And if that means coming up to the stumps and putting yourself in slightly uncomfortable positions, if at the end of the day it's helping bowlers take wickets, the most important thing.

For those who don't keep wicket and don't know what it is, like. How different is it? How much training have you had to do in order to stand up?

Yeah, I mean, it's quite hard to replicate standing up at times to people that are bowling, you know, 83, 84 mph. It was certainly eye-opening at Trent Bridge against New Zealand, standing up to Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson for a sustained period of time. It's not saying that you do it every day. I'm not sure your fingers would be too happy if you did it every day as well. So it's just trying to get yourself in a position where You feel confident of catching the ball, and again, you feel as though you're a part of it and you're the one making an impact to take a wicket.

And is that something that England batters are sort of practicing almost with you standing up in the nets as well? Because it's obviously been an effective ploy for Joe Root with the keeper standing up.

Yeah, I mean, I think that all our batting unit, when it comes to their training, I think they're quite specific to the opposition and what the opposition are going to throw at them. So it's definitely that sort of, you know, 83 bowler You know, bowling at the top of the stumps, nipping it around. That's sort of been the way that a lot of the guys have been training, especially for the games that have been upcoming and the games that are going to keep coming for England at the moment. So they've been working hard at that and they'll continue to do so. Yeah.

Can we expect to see you standing up to the stumps quite a bit on this pitch when it comes to your turn tomorrow?

Hopefully so. I think if that's the way the ball's nipping around, that would definitely help bring in sort of bold and LBW. I think that's the main thing. And we've already seen that's quite a common mode of dismissal so far today. So hopefully that will Just keep improving as the game goes on.

Best of luck tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you.

That was a very happy Jamie Smith talking to Alison Mitchell. He batted very well today. Uh, Jamie Smith did just the job that England wanted him to do down at number 7 and was certainly the most fluid of England's batters today, notwithstanding Jordan Cox's first 38 runs. I've got Andy Zaltzman alongside me. What statistical oddities have you found today?

Well, let's start with Smith. That was his highest score in his last 12 Tests since he had an extraordinary game at Edgbaston against India last year when he made 184 not out and 88 in the match, which from memory was the most runs ever by a wicketkeeper in a Test match. Um, uh, Jordan Cox, uh, another good innings from him, 55, back-to-back 50s. Uh, he's reached 25 in his first 4 innings of his Test career, and in the last 50 years only 2 other England players have done that— Jonathan Trott and David Gower. That's going back to David Steele, who did it in, uh, Just over 50 years ago. So those were the 2 big pluses for England with the bat. Joe Root LBW again, as Michael mentioned a short while ago. That's the 8th time in his last 7 Tests he's been out LBW to a seamer. Once every 89 balls of seam that he's faced since the start of the Melbourne Test, he's been out LBW. And to put that in context, in his previous 39 Tests, he'd been LBW to a fast bowler just 3 times, once every 1,137 balls. So yes, a bit of a technical glitch that we talked about. The last, the last 4 have all been with the wicketkeeper standing up. The first 4 in that sequence were with the keeper, uh, keeper standing back. So yeah, I don't know quite how to interpret that.

Have people worked out wobblesy? Because it seems that it's the nip backer that's getting him time and time again. It's— and it's doing quite a lot of people actually at the moment.

Yes, but that's been around for a while and it Obviously wasn't working against him previously, but anyway, that's, uh, those are the numbers on Root and his, uh, his, his pads. Mohammad Abbas, uh, 3 wickets in his opening spell including, uh, Root. Looking at, um, opposition fast bowlers, opposition opening bowlers who've taken 3 wickets in the opening spell of a Test in England, the last to do so was Tim Murtagh for Ireland on this ground out of 5 for 13 opening spell in the first innings. Of the match, so this just looking at the opening innings of the match. Before that, Muhammad Asif in 2006 at the Oval, three for thirty-nine. And the list of bowlers before that, since the early seventies, some of the greats of bowling: Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Terry Alderman, Colin Croft, Dennis Lillee. And that takes us back to Bob Massey in the match in 1972 here when he took he took eight in both innings, including three wickets. his opening spell on the first, uh, the first day. Mohammad Ali hit the stumps twice in the 53rd over, um, and that's the 2nd earliest in the Lord's Test that anyone's hit the stumps twice in an over.

Maybe he does sting like a bee after all.

Yeah, the only bowler who's done so earlier in a Test match, Dan, would you believe? Mohammad Nisar for India in their first Test at Lord's in 1932 bowled out 2 players in the 3rd over of the game.

I remember it well.

So, uh, yeah, so again, it's hard to interpret this. And we talked about Lord's, the recent pitches at Lord's. This is sort of in line with the trend over the last 15 Tests. We've seen around about 26 runs per wicket at Lord's and a wicket every 46, 47 balls. So this, uh, 248 for 9 in 56 overs, uh, in, in line with that. And to just to sort of highlight that is that 46.7 balls per wicket at Lord's in the last 15 Tests before this one. The lowest such figure ever at a Test ground over a 15-Test sequence. So it has been a very difficult place to bat. So 248 for 9 might prove to be a useful score.

It might, but I dare say the authorities here will be delighted. It's probably not going to be a 160-over match, and at the very least, especially with a bit of weather around, we're going to get to a 3rd day, you'd imagine.

Well, just on the, the Pakistan seamers, the lateral movement, the ball tracking data shows that they've, uh, they've had the 3rd most out of the 41 innings first innings of Tests in the database at Lord's. So, um, so they have— they were getting a lot of lateral movement off the pitch, not so much in the air. Um, so again, that suggests that score might not be too bad.

Well, and it also suggests it could be hard work for Pakistan tomorrow against England's quartet of seamers.

The TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

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