Abid Ali made a solid 60 but England claimed three wickets late in the evening as Pakistan were restricted to 126 for five at the close of a rain hit opening day of the second test at the Rose Bowl on Thursday.
The hosts made 2 changes with Zak Crawley coming in for Ben Stokes and Sam Curran replacing Jofra Archer, while Pakistan dropped all-rounder Shadab Khan and included Fawad Alam to strengthen their batting.
Azhar Ali opted to bat first after winning the toss, but the visitors suffered an early blow when James Anderson trapped Manchester centurion Shan Masood LBW for just one.
Abid was also on 1 when he got a reprieve, with Dom Sibley dropping an edge off Stuart Broad at third slip. The 32 year old added 72 runs for the second wicket stand along with skipper Azhar before the latter edged an Anderson delivery to Rory Burns.
Six overs later, left arm seamer Sam Curran finally removed the well-set Abid, caught by Burns for a well made 60. The opener’s dismissal triggered a mini collapse of sorts- Asad Shafiq fell for just five to Broad, while Fawad Alam was trapped LBW for a four ball duck by all-rounder Chris Woakes.
Alam, who was making a comeback to the test setup after a gap of 11 long years, was initially given not out but England took the review and got the decision in their favour.
Pakistan ended day 1 at 126/5- only 45.4 overs were bowled owing to the poor weather, with Babar Azam (25)* and Mohammad Rizwan (4)* unbeaten at the crease.
Anderson was England’s best bowler as he ended up with figures of 2/35, while Broad, Curran and Woakes picked up a wicket each.