Root, who scored a 150, resisted the temptation of counter-attacking Pakistan's ploy of having their leg-spinning duo of Yasir Shah and Azhar Ali bowl from around the stumps in the latter half of the morning session. Woakes, however, took the bait after making a positive impact in the first hour of the morning session and notching up a fifty, as he tamely hit one back to Yasir off his own bowling. The wicket allowed the No. 1 Test bowler break his Old Trafford duck after 38 overs of nothingness.
Mohammad Amir, entrusted with the job of halting England's progress, began the day with a fine maiden over but the lack of movement and assistance was evident from the outset. The first day of the weekend brought bigger crowds, who tried to rile up the left-arm pacer with chants of 'no-ball' once again. Amir, who had successfully ignored the taunts on Day 1, did so again, but had a different issue to deal with. The 23-year-old struggled on the hard surface at Old Trafford, often limping on his way back to the run-up. A decline in his pace was a clear indicator that he was struggling with a niggle, and yet there were a few moments where his genius was on display. He smartly used the scrambled seam to square up Woakes on a couple of occasions but his five-over spell didn't yield a wicket.
Misbah-ul-Haq turned to Yasir and Wahab Riaz but the Root-Woakes pair seemed assured at the crease as they went into the drinks break. With the batsmen well set, Yasir altered his tactics and employed a silly point, for a while, and bowled a lot slower through the air in a bid to invite the opposition to drive him through the off-side. Root and Woakes did well to keep their shots along the ground as an engrossing battle was starting to build between them and the wily leg spinner.
Pakistan's toil, arising from unfavourable conditions, also had poor display on the field to blame. Yasir nearly had Root after the drinks but Younis Khan couldn't get down and behind a low catching chance. With Wahab matching Rahat Ali's ineffectiveness with the ball, Misbah gambled by throwing the ball to part-time leggie Azhar Ali.
Azhar and Yasir began to bowl from around the stumps to try and wiggle out a poor shot from the batsmen, who refused to be drawn in to Pakistan's new ploy. Woakes scored his second fifty and looked set to remain unbeaten at lunch and take a shot at a maiden century, but a weak push back to Yasir brought an end to his innings on 58.
England reached 427 for 5 at the end of first session, with Root, just 15 short of his double century, and comeback man Ben Stokes in the middle.
Brief Scores: England 427/5 (Joe Root 185*, Alastair Cook 105, Chris Woakes 58; M Amir 2-63, R Ali 2-69) vs Pakistan
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