• After 16 overs, Pakistan was 59 for 2.
• His five wicketless overs yielded 37 runs because he was either too short or too full.
• Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum told Ahmed of his selection 24 hours earlier.

Rehan Ahmed had left the away dressing room and back on the pitch 10 minutes into the lunch break. With senior spinner Jack Leach, he turned his arm over a few times, hopping on the spot between deliveries.

The previous hours were historic and dramatic. At 9.30am on Saturday, when the toss was made and the sides were announced, Ahmed became England’s youngest male Test cricketer.

His father, Naeem, presented him with his cap seconds earlier. Dad hugged and kissed him as he bent the navy-blue peak. “Asian dad embarrassing his teenager in front of their new friends” bingo needed a cheek push.

After 16 overs, Pakistan was 59 for 2 and Ahmed had the ball at the University Road End. His five wicketless overs yielded 37 runs because he was either too short or too full.

Against spinners Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, an opponent making only his fourth first-class debut had little tolerance for error or goodwill.

Was this kid test-anxious? Absolutely. He confessed he couldn’t eat or sleep the night before his debut while whirling a ball around the team’s Movenpick Hotel. Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum told Ahmed of the selection 24 hours earlier.

Ahmed’s early arrival for the second session was owing to anxiety as much as eagerness to begin. In the past 11 months, he has had a brilliant Under-19 World Cup, a first-class debut, a time in the men’s Hundred, and now a Test cap.

As a self-diagnosed cricket badger, he wanted to realise all those hours shadow-batting or working out shadow batters. Ahmed’s restlessness is good.

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