Root's Reign Resumes as Pakistan Wilt Without Babar Azam

England seize control as Babar Azam sits out

Joe Root's second stint as England Test captain has begun exactly as he would have hoped, and exactly as Pakistan feared. With Babar Azam ruled out of the first Test through injury, England have dominated the opening exchanges in his absence, with Harry Brook cashing in on a dropped catch to put Pakistan firmly on the back foot.

Root takes the armband again with Ben Stokes unavailable, and while questions were always going to be asked about England's leadership without their talismanic all-rounder, those questions have quickly turned into praise. Root's side have made Pakistan pay for every mistake, and Brook's punishment of a missed chance has been the difference between a competitive contest and a one-sided opening day.

Pakistan's problems run deeper than one absence

Babar's fitness issue could not have come at a worse time. Pakistan cricket is already under scrutiny over the captain's influence on team selection and pitch preparation, with reports suggesting he has favoured flatter surfaces at the expense of a pace attack that has visibly declined. Losing your best batter and talisman for a series opener against an in-form England side, while those broader tactical criticisms swirl, is about as bad a combination as Pakistan could have asked for.

Without Babar to anchor the innings, the pressure falls on the rest of the top order, and on a bowling attack already being picked apart in the press for lacking the venom of Pakistan's great pace traditions. It is a tough audition for whoever steps into the captaincy void, and an even tougher one for a side trying to prove doubts about its pace stocks wrong in home conditions, let alone away in England.

What it means for Root, and for Pakistan

For Root, this is a statement start to a leadership return nobody quite expected but plenty will welcome if results follow. England went into this series needing victories to be considered genuine contenders, and early dominance without their first-choice captain and best all-rounder in the side sends a message about the strength in depth Root now has to call upon.

For Pakistan, the alarm bells are ringing louder. A missed catch proving costly, a captain missing through injury, and a wider debate about bowling strategy all colliding in the same Test is the sort of confluence that turns a difficult tour into a damaging one. The rest of this opening Test, and how Pakistan respond once Babar is fit again, will tell us whether this is a blip or the start of a genuinely troubling series for the tourists.