Jamie Smith is proving to be England's man for a crisis, while Ollie Pope is struggling to avoid a crisis of his own, writes Stephan Shemilt.

Home series against West Indies and Sri Lanka are about as gentle an introduction to Test cricket as they come for an England player, but Jamie Smith was now in at the deep end. A

Jamie Smith bailed out England with a gallant half-century against Pakistan's spin attack on an engineered dry pitch to start the decisive third test on Thursday. England was on the ropes at 118-6 shortly after lunch until Smith's 89 revived them to 267 all out.