Bad light fiasco and Root lets the tourists off the hook... ENGLAND V PAKISTAN TALKING POINTS

NICK HOWSON: Mohammad Rizwan makes England pay while Sky Sports deliver another memorable segment during a summer in which they have been imperious

• Bad light halts England as Pakistan dig in
• Root: Question Anderson at your peril

England indulge Rizwan

It was another dismal afternoon session for England in this series. They wriggled away from Emirates Old Trafford with a victory after three days in which they were a shambles after the lunch break.

And those frailties returned on day two in Southampton. In fairness, the hosts bowled well in the 40 minutes or so after the first break, taking three wickets to reduce Pakistan to 176-8.

Mohammad Rizwan was joined by Mohammad Abbas, the Queen of the tourists' bottom three. Suddenly, England transformed their approach. From pitching the ball up and allowing the conditions to do the rest, they started to bang the ball in short.

The tactics employed to Rizwan were also baffling. Joe Root distributed six men on the boundary when the wicket-keeper batsman was on strike, allow him to dictate terms. You could have been forgiven for thinking Pakistan were 480 for 6, and not struggling to reach 200.

We have of course seen this before from Root. Mitchell Santner sauntered his way to a maiden Test century at the Bay Oval thanks to some strange tactics. Steve Smith and Virat Kohli have also been indulged when batting with the tail during Root's tenure. It is a relinquishing of pressure which turns the momentum of the match on its head.

Credit to Rizwan for taking full advantage of the situation. He looked all at sea with the bat at Old Trafford, a walking wicket even, making nine from 41 deliveries in the first innings. It was a bit painful.

England may have accommodated him, but the ball was still doing plenty under light and murky skies. He played late, left well and took advantage of scoring opportunities. It sounds very simple, but those are the keys to building an innings on these shores.

Bad light, bad look

Deep breath.

Play was suspended on two occasions on day two due to bad light. Umpires Richard Kettleborough and Michael Gough took the players off either side of tea when conditions were deemed unsafe.

The officials took a light metre reading last night when they deemed the conditions unplayable, and that acts as a ceiling for the remainder of the contest. Once the metre reaches that level again, they can remove both teams from the field.

It all sounds very simple when you think about it. Subjectivity is replaced by a clear and obvious mode for gauging when conditions have changed.

The problems surface when you factor in the use of floodlights. Hampshire paid £1 million to have them installed in 2006, to ensure they could host day/night cricket and en route to their attempts to stage international cricket. But they're largely benign if play can still be called off while they're beaming bright.

Plenty of things have to change. The process by which the reading is taken, and then re-accessed has to become more transparent. We know the colour of Stuart Broad's inhaler; I think it's time we were allowed in on the big light metre secret.

^{Joe Root allowed Pakistan to make what could be some key second innings runs}

If saliva is banned, celebrations are tempered, players are tested for COVID-19 on regular occasions, everyone is locked away in hotel rooms and fans are prevented from attending just to get cricket on, surely adding some flexibility to the light rule could also be permitted. This is already cricket as we've never known it before, it wouldn't be a great leap to make another adaptation to the regulations.

Earlier start times (with no fans around why exactly could this not be a thing?) and the use of the pink ball which shows up better under lights, could yet be introduced, but they sound too much like common sense.

It is just as well that fans weren't around to watch the fiasco unfold, as umpires made their way from the middle, back to the pavilion, and so on. And because 40.2 overs were possible they wouldn't have even been even entitled to a refund. What a joke.

Sky continue to enjoy imperious summer

This was not a vintage day of Test cricket. The sort that makes you want to lie that you like the sport at all. You're a little ashamed.

But before play began at 12:30 pm, the whole thing seemed worth it. Sky Sports have won this international summer. Their coverage during this period has outdone anything they did in 2019, including during the World Cup and the Ashes. It has been extraordinary.

From the film including Ebony Rainford-Brent and Michael Holding to the documentary Michael Atherton made in Pakistan, there has been some sensational content. And that is without mentioning their top-rate analysis, and tutorials to young players during breaks in play.

One of the most fascinating chats saw Michael Atherton, Shane Warne and Nasser Hussain discuss the art of captaincy. Everything from dealing with the media, advice they'd give to their 21-year-old selves and coping with egos was up for discussion. It was as good as it comes from the trio.

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