ALASTAIR COOK

was in his element as he dug in for more than eight hours to put England on course to save the first Test against Pakistan at the Zayed Cricket Stadium. Cook’s 28th Test hundred, an extreme example in attritional conditions of his rearguard adaptability, featured a clutch of notable individual statistics. Crucially too, in the wider scheme as England try to follow up last summer’s Ashes success, it spread belief they can be competitive against Pakistan.