Taylor's patience again to the fore

This was nip-and-tuck subcontinental cricket. A match shaping to be relatively low scoring, spinners with men around the bat, a slow surface but with significant turn and the ball reversing. Every run vital. Every boundary almost an event. Every wicket a potentially decisive moment.

For the second day running it was honours England, but still with the caveat of them having to bat last. In the early stages it looked like they wanted to take the long-handle route - Moeen Ali fell top-edging a slog-sweep and Ian Bell lofted his seventh ball for six - but instead it became the slow-road, much like the traffic from Sharjah to Dubai. The morning session brought 83 runs in 32 overs, the afternoon 48 in 27 and the last 87 in 31 which included a four-an-over push against the second new ball.

The fact England did not completely stall was largely down to a player making his Test comeback after a gap of more than three years. When Joe Root failed for the first time in the series, edging a drive against Rahat Ali, the innings was on a precipice at 97 for 3, which was effectively four down due to Ben Stokes' injury.

The vultures, or close fielders, were circling, Yasir Shah was getting excited. This could have been the series lost, right here. All it would have taken would have been the sort of bad session which cost England in Dubai. Step forward James Taylor.

This is a player who, if not directly to his face then through insinuation, was considered not good enough for Test cricket by Kevin Pietersen after the pair had shared a 147-run stand on Taylor's debut at Headingley. Taylor made only 34 of them, but the key word is partnership. Few players can play like KP; Taylor did not try to match him that day. He continues to play his own way.

One more Test followed, but in the intervening years he has always found himself behind someone in the pecking order, whether Joe Root for the 2012-13 tour of India, Gary Ballance for the 2013-14 Ashes or then Jonny Bairstow last summer. Those other players have all been worthy of their call-ups - and the Taylor of 2012 did need some refining - but there is no doubting that he has done more than his fair share of waiting.

Having bided his time so well, the pent-up emotions as he walked out must have been huge, but it did not result in anything hasty. There was an energy about him at the crease, he was forever shuffling, but at the same moment looked outwardly calm.

He was well forward to the spin - which has been a feature of all of England's most notable innings of the series, from Alastair Cook, Root and Adil Rashid - and used his wrists to work the gaps even if that occasionally meant playing across Yasir's legbreak.

He scampered like a little terrier - the running with Bairstow was a highlight of their unbroken 83-run stand and right into the final over of the day they were grabbing anything they could - and though a fifty off 100 balls does not leap out for its scoring rate, in the context of this match it was positively brisk. By the close, with 74 off 141 deliveries, he was second only to Younis Khan in the strike-rates of top-order batsmen in the game.

"He's a smart enough cricketer, a busy cricketer - and that's what we saw today, the way he swept, used his feet and running between the wickets," Bell said. "That's a really good way to play. At the back-end of the day, he and Jonny had that really good partnership to get us to the close of play."

There have been, and will continue to be, questions over Taylor's technique against pace bowling. Despite his one-day runs against Australia he can only truly silence the doubters in South Africa, although he repelled the probing reverse swing of Rahat and Wahab Riaz with aplomb as he and Ian Bell soaked up significant pressure in the afternoon session to ensure against a damaging collapse.

It is not complete hindsight to say Taylor should have been in this series from the start. His prowess against spin was well forged. He made scores of 90 and 68 in the ODIs against Sri Lanka last year, while he has an unbeaten 242 for the Lions, in the same country, under his belt.

He was also a form man at the back-end of the English season - making 555 runs in his last five Championship matches after a mid-season slump - and scored an unbeaten 61 in the warm-up match against Pakistan A, but finding the space was the tricky part. Unless it had been in place of Bairstow, the only way would have been to make a tough early call on Jos Buttler's form. That, though, is all history now. At least Taylor is there, still with time to make a difference.

"It shows good character to go back to county cricket, grind out runs, and then in the one-day series against Australia," Bell said. "With any opportunity he's had, he's grabbed it. I hope this is the start for him to kick on. He's got a lot of ability, and I hope we're going to see that over the next few years."

As Taylor and Bairstow took advantage of a new ball and tiring bowlers in the final hour of the day it was another reminder that aggression - or perhaps, more accurately, positive intent - comes in many forms. The position is not yet decisive but as with the ball on the opening day the hard yards, both for Taylor and England, could prove very fruitful.