Hello again, Sami Aslam

Here is the ballad of a Pakistani opener. In his 12th Test he was playing with his third different opening partner. After 11 Tests he had six fifties, which included two nineties and an eighty. In 2016, his first proper year of Test cricket, he was Pakistan's fourth-highest run-scorer. As Azhar Ali, his opening partner in most of those, was top-scorer, it meant Pakistan had a workable opening pair. Also, he didn't really have any easy Tests in 2016. He played in England, New Zealand and Australia.

After 11 Tests, though, he was dropped, four innings after a 91 in Hamilton on a tour in which that innings - and one more from Babar Azam - were literally the only batting highlights. He was replaced by a man who is now banned, having been found guilty of corruption. He was then replaced by a man better known for taking selfies. And, finally, he was replaced by the man who is his partner in this Test, whom he has never partnered before. And if he fails now, by the way, the selectors seem inclined to replace him with a guy who only recently finished a five-year ban for corruption.

Hello, Sami Aslam. Meet Pakistan, who have tried 16 different opening combinations in the last five years of Test cricket, the most by any nation. England, you may think you have issues too (with 14 different pairings) but at least you have Alastair Cook.

This was not the innings that made a mockery of Aslam's dropping and vindicated his return. Fifty-one is useful only as a statistical landmark - otherwise, in nearly all circumstances, it is a waste of a start. And not converting fifties into hundreds, as Aslam hasn't, is precisely the kind of problem that can be held against a batsman if it lingers.

His commitment to fitness was also said to be an issue around the time he was dropped and this regime at least seems to be serious in implementing these standards.

Still, being dropped when he was, with what he had done that year behind him, must have stung. It did a little, though much in the vein of modern-player parlance. "In 2016, in 9 Tests, I scored 600-plus runs so I think it was a good performance," he reasoned. "The tours were tough as well. When you are dropped you feel it a bit, but I've taken that positively.

"I have worked hard. I got better results in my fitness tests than before. It wasn't an issue before, but in domestic cricket, I did well. I am feeling better about myself now, so I utilised that time well."

But he is back for now and making light of unfamiliarity with Shan Masood, with whom he was opening for the first time at any level. Together the pair gave Pakistan the kind of start that makes it difficult - but not improbable - for them to lose.

"If you have an understanding with the other partner, then it [being unused to a new partner] doesn't make a difference," Aslam said. "At the start it could be an issue, but in practice matches in Lahore, we became familiar. After that, in your calling and stuff, you become familiar, you develop an understanding and it's not that difficult."

He was unfortunate with his dismissal, Dilruwan Perera trapping him with one that crept through low. It was another missed opportunity to break through to a maiden hundred, though it isn't the kind of thing that occupies Aslam unduly.

He gives the impression of a man who knows it will come, which, given his first-class record and hundred-scoring capacities seen at U-19 level, is not outlandish.

"It is in my mind that I have to score a hundred," he said. "As an opener, or anywhere you play, you want to score big runs for the team. I'm trying, but you saw what happened today - I was done by a ball that kept low and I played it wrong as well.

"No, it's nothing like that [getting nervous as he nears the landmark]. I am used to it. But I think each time the situation has been such. Once I was run out, then once, the team was going for runs and I got out hitting out. It's nothing like that - I'm hoping I'll get there soon."