As Jimmy Anderson tees off, England’s bowlers melt in the Multan heat

But by the time Anderson sets foot in the Multan Cricket Stadium, England will have a mountain to climb in the first Test.

They lost a heavy toss on a flat pitch and stuck manfully to their task throughout the opening day, but had no answer to centurions Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood until it was too late.

It is a measure of their tenacity and dedication which they both appreciated in the evening session, their best of the day. Later, Chris Woakes’ wicket of Babar Azam with the new ball was their reward.

The schedule here was already stacked against England ahead of this series. Eight days earlier, four members of the then Multan.

So not only was there so little time between a summer of high-intensity cricket, with no time for a warm-up match or even a camp in Abu Dhabi, but there was also significant acclimatization required from autumn cold to raw heat.

The first day in the mud was always going to be brutal – and it was.

With that context, England had to make their lives easier in every way possible, and that also meant having their fast-bowling guru on site.

Although they stuck with it, England’s inexperience with the ball was evident. None of the three selected seamers had previously played in Pakistan. Woakes played his first Test in Asia since 2016, Gus Atkinson played away from home for the first time and Carse made his debut. Neither of the two quick players on the bench, Matthew Potts and Olly Stone, have toured Pakistan before.

There has been a complete turnaround in the pace attack that brought England so much success here in Pakistan in 2022 as they won 3-0.

Anderson has retired, Ollie Robinson has been dropped (he uploaded a video of himself watching the action from an airport lounge), while Mark Wood and Stokes are both injured.

Anderson’s only two Tests in Pakistan came during that 2022 tour, when he took eight wickets at an average of 18.5 and, crucially, an economy rate of 2.2 per over. But he was there on tour in 2005, watching Shoaib Akhtar up close, and he has 92 Test wickets in Asia (as many as any visiting bowler, tied with Dale Steyn).

By all accounts, he has made an excellent start in his life as a coach. Insiders praise the immediate impact he had on raw 20-year-old Josh Hull during the series against Sri Lanka, teaching him about the wobble seam, now a key part of the Test seam arsenal. Wood credited him for a devastating spell against the West Indies at Edgbaston.

There is no guarantee that Anderson’s knowledge of bowling in these conditions would have improved the current crop of bowlers had he been present on their three training days.

McCullum was quick to point out that Anderson does have a WhatsApp group with the bowlers on the tour, passing on sage advice, but that is clearly no substitute for being on the ground. If there was one time he could add value in this series, it was before a single ball was bowled.

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Anderson is currently in post-career limbo. He hasn’t officially retired from first-class cricket and is doing a bit of coaching alongside some media work as he works out what the second chapter of his life will look like. He has every right to let his hair down and do some golf, especially during a bucket list event like the Dunhill (Kevin Pietersen, who also played, describes it as “the best week of the year”).

England’s relaxed approach is also one of the reasons why players and coaches are so keen to get involved.

But given the challenge England face on this tour, it definitely had to be one or the other for Anderson, rather than arriving in Pakistan too late for his most important job.

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