Mohammad Abbas turned Pakistan’s morning at Lord’s with one wicket that changed the shape of the first day. He trapped Joe Root leg-before and England slipped to 35-2, a burst that put Pakistan in control of the second men’s Test before lunch.
The moment mattered because it came in the kind of opening spell that can decide the tone of a Test before the crowd has settled. Abbas had already shown enough magic with the new ball to unsettle England, and Mohammad Rizwan’s catch down the leg-side to remove Emilio Gay helped Pakistan build pressure from both ends.
Root did not review the lbw decision, which left England leaning on the scoreboard rather than the umpire’s call. That gave Abbas the prize wicket, and it also underlined how quickly Pakistan had seized the session while England’s top order was still trying to find its footing.
Yet Pakistan were not flawless in the field even as they held the upper hand. Imam-ul-Haq put down Root at third slip earlier in the innings, a miss that could have shifted the mood if Root had gone on to make them pay. Instead, Abbas kept coming and was into his eighth over when England were 66-3, still working through the lineup with the new ball and still asking questions.
There was also a practical limit to how long Pakistan could keep him at it. Abbas was granted a rest after bowling eight overs, a reminder that his spell had been used hard enough to change the innings but not so long that it could be stretched without pause. Later, Harry Brook punched back with a four off Abbas by whipping a leg-stump delivery away, before Mohammad Ali rattled Brook’s stumps as Pakistan’s attack continued to press.
By then, the story was no longer just Abbas’s first strike. Pakistan had taken the opening session on day one, but they had done it in a live match state that still felt unfinished, with England’s innings carrying on after that early damage and Pakistan still needing their bowlers to sustain the edge they had created.
