Misbah-ul-Haq steers Pakistan to 282-6 after day one at Lord's

Misbah arrived at the home of cricket to play his first ever test match on British soil at the age of 42, but he delivered a captain’s knock to help his side recover from a tricky position of three down for 77 shortly after the lunch interval.

Closing on an unbeaten 110, Misbah became the sixth oldest player in cricket history to score a Test century, building a partnership of 148 with Asad Shafiq and taking advantage of favourable batting conditions in the evening session to accelerate the scoring - particularly off-spinner Moeen Ali - before celebrating in style.

Two late wickets for the pick of the bowlers, Chris Woakes, ensured it was honours even after day one. But Misbah will return to the crease on Friday morning looking to steer his side to a daunting total before unleashing his much-heralded bowling attack on England’s reshuffled batting line-up.

The Warwickshire right armer looked out of his depth for much of his early international career, but is showing signs of developing into the bowler that the England selectors have always hoped he could be. Woakes has upped his pace to the high 80s and has the sort of movement that could see him ultimately replace James Anderson as England’s main swing bowler. And it was the 27-year-old who was comfortably the most dangerous of England’s bowlers on the opening day at Lord’s, finishing with figures of 4-45 off 18 overs.

A mention too for Jake Ball, who took a wicket on his Test debut and looked consistently more threatening than either of the established England quicks, Stuart Broad or Steven Finn.

The England spinner was taken apart by Misbah, but then that’s hardly a surprise. The Pakistan captain is one of the best players of spin in the world, while Moeen is not a world-class spinner.

The problem for England is that they don’t have a top-quality spin option, so have found a solution by selecting an excellent all-round cricketer who has frequently dug England out of holes with the bat and overachieved with the ball.

However, if Moeen is taken out of the attack again in the sort of manner he was on Monday, then the selectors may be forced to bring in Adil Rashid in his place later in the series, even though the Yorkshire bowler has similarly failed to set the world alight in his brief Test-match career.