Pakistan had hinted that they might not take the field after lunch yesterday. While they didn't actually make good on that threat, they compensated for it on Friday, by spending as little time as possible on it with the bat.
Imam-ul-Haq never even emerged from the pavilion, his calf ostensibly stressed by the need to field at all on the first day. Others dropped in, as Pakistanis do at winter weddings just to register their presence, only to slip away a few minutes later. Even then, they are only able to do so once they've ensured a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter has been left behind to keep appearances up. Often it's the youngest, least experienced member of the group, the one who hasn't yet understood he could actually get away with doing the bare minimum.
So Azan Awais was left out there. First with a makeshift partner in Shan Masood, shunted up the order by Imam's injury and then shunted off the pitch by Jofra Archer's pace. Abdullah Shafique was peppered by some hostile short bowling by Josh Tongue and Archer, and ultimately lost his concentration while driving a rare loose, wide delivery without moving his feet.
It wasn't as if Awais didn't have to deal with England's fast-bowling brilliance. Gus Atkinson had all but given him a literal clip round the ear with a vicious bumper that reared off a length, arcing him over like a bad contortionist; the umpire needed UltraEdge to convince him he hadn't actually nicked it.
But that didn't surprise him. After all, he's still quite new to this Pakistan side. He only made his debut three months ago. He'd always assumed batting in international cricket would be hard. Especially away from home, where he's played all of his six Tests so far. He'd thought, in his youthful naivety, that when batting became challenging, he'd actually need to dig in rather than get out and bemoan his misfortune.
That, bless him, is what he tried to do in the hour before lunch, when England's bowlers were at their most inhospitable. He was barely scoring at one an over, crawling to eight in 44 balls, and leaving just under a quarter of those. According to Cricinfo's ball-by-ball numbers, he attacked just two deliveries in that period. It was, as far as he knew, nothing to be ashamed of; after all, he hasn't yet hit his 22nd birthday, and has scored 11 hundreds in first-class cricket while striking at under 45.
And in any case, Babar Azam was at the crease, so he could just watch and learn. Babar knew these conditions, in which he averaged over 63, and wasn't fazed by pace, as he demonstrated when he creamed a flat drive through cover off his fourth ball. And when he played the same shot the following over.
But the beauty of those shots was merely the generous salaami Babar was leaving behind before he took his leave. Josh Tongue worked him over beautifully the following over, and drew him into an uncertain push on off stump, out in front of his body. Awais had been trying to block those kinds of balls all day, not that Archer had been especially impressed by his application.
"I've never seen someone play and miss so many balls and not get out," he later grumbled to Sky Sports. "So whatever he's doing, he's doing well. So fair play to him."
Maybe, if even Babar wasn't strapping in for the long haul, that wasn't the thing to do, and it probably wasn't what anyone who followed would. Even the famously cautious Saud Shakeel was going at over a run a ball; maybe this is how things were done in international cricket.
So Awais carved Atkinson through square for a couple of cuts, and then repeated the approach in Atkinson's next over - one a glorious cover drive, the other a streaky dash through gully. It was just as Shakeel at the other end had taught him to do. Well, except Shakeel wasn't at the other end anymore, having kept his appearance short and sharp, like any experienced Pakistani Test batter.
Awais saved his best shot for Archer on the stroke of a rain break, a leaned drive past the cover sweeper. Since that first Atkinson boundary, he'd scored 27 in 26 balls, having realised he'd have to balance his grit with a bit of adventurism to live up to the expectations of this side. In keeping with Archer's assessment, he wasn't completely devoid of luck; the following ball reared up on him and, once more he led the umpire, incorrectly, to believe he'd nicked off.
By now, Awais was playing a lot more; his leave percentage had dropped below 7% since lunch, but unlike every other batter, he was still out there. In fact, across both sides, no one on either team scored more individual runs than Awais managed on Friday, even if it wasn't a particularly salubrious day for batting.
"The spell Archer bowled to Awais this morning was sensational," Pakistan head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed said later. "But hats off to Awais, the way the kid handled that spell. It's going to be great for his career."
That is, if it carries on this way, of course, and recent history strongly suggests otherwise. Pakistan cricket is that unusual set-up in which exposure to Test cricket actually appears to make players worse rather than better; where a young batter with 11 first-class hundreds is likely to never be as good as when he'd had as little time in the national side as Awais has had now.
What happened with Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah would tell you that. What happened with Shakeel and Salman Ali Agha, who went from captain to discard for this Test after fading sharply of late, would tell you that. What, indeed, happened all around that Awais innings would tell you that.
Soon after the resumption, and two balls after Robinson - who had been conceding less than a run an over all innings - had found Khurram Shahzad's edge, the bowler banged in a surprise medium-paced bouncer to Awais, with the keeper standing up the stumps. With deep square leg in position, Awais pulled it through the on-side. It was the 102nd ball he'd faced, but the first one he pulled, to a ball Robinson specifically wanted him to pull. It sailed through the air and into Emilio Gay's grateful hands.
It was the simplest of traps; one, you could almost be fooled into believing, a more experienced Pakistan batter in this team would walk into. Perhaps, in this deteriorating husk of a Test side, Awais is fitting in rather quickly after all.