Classic Test match grind

We have finally got what we wanted from Pakistan - a rather uneventful day at the cricket - highlighting just how far they have come from the spot-fixing summer, writes Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail.

There was nothing here to question, nothing to arouse suspicion even in the most cynical observer. Scoring patterns were not like a particularly badly executed foxtrot — slow, slower, quickest, quick, slow — and while there were some unexpected dismissals, Jonathan Trott bagging the wicket of a settled Younis Khan for instance, there was nothing disquietingly unfathomable on view. And some may feel that is a pity. They may think that it was Pakistan’s maverick nature that made them such compelling opponents. Yet as so much of that eccentricity aroused justified suspicion, it became colour we could do without.

Given the sport’s oldest format is being played in one of its newest and most high-spec venues, day 2 in Dubai was a strike back for the good old days, writes Paul Radley in the National.

This England team live by the mantra that if you stand still you will be overtaken. Everything about their cricket is thoroughly modern, from their high-visibility, brilliant white kit, to their bleep test fielding drills with musical accompaniment. Their methods obviously do work. They are the world’s best side in an era in which macho players can score Test match hundreds in 69 balls. By stark contrast, Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s insouciant captain, barely moved out of second gear yesterday – and off-white gear it is, too.

The lack of crowds in Dubai - one of the stranger settings for Test cricket - is not a fair indicator of Pakistan's interest levels in the longest format, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph.

You could seize on this figure as evidence of the decline, or imminent death, of Test cricket. But it would be fairer to observe that, back in Pakistan, Karachi and Lahore have not drawn Test crowds since the Seventies, and Faisalabad only did so in the Eighties because the municipality ran the Test match and forced local factories to buy tickets.