Naseem Shah was denied a first Test wicket by the calling of a no ball after the fact, but he had consolation in a generous assessment by David Warner, who made the most of the second chance to bat through day two of the Gabba Test for Australia.
"He's quite skiddy, got a nice fluent action, but he won't get a harder Test debut than out there and bowl at the Gabba," Warner said of 16-year-old Naseem. "To keep coming back in, having to back up the overs, that heat. You ask any Test fast bowler who's played here and had to keep coming back, it's very challenging out there, and our job as batsmen is to try and keep them coming back. I think he kept his speed up quite a lot throughout the whole day. The back end he cramped up a little bit, but that's obviously going to happen.
"He charged in, and there's a superstar there. Like when Mohammad Amir came on the scene, the first time, he was rapid and had us all in a pickle. He was a world class bowler, and if you add him to the Test lineup as well, their depth is ridiculous, and having these other young guys like Musa and Hasnain as well, who I faced in the T20s. If Waqar Younis can get a hold of them and get their lines and lengths and their engines going, they're going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future."
Those words of encouragement were as good as it got for Pakistan on an otherwise barren day, as Warner, Joe Burns and Marnus Labuschagne were so supreme as to prevent the Ashes dominating Steven Smith from even getting a bat. Yasir Shah, who continued his own personal battle to try to find the right way to bowl in Australia, was blunt in assessing how the pace bowlers had used the new ball in the absence of Mohammad Abbas.
"The wicket played very differently to the way it did on day one. The kind of moisture we saw wasn't there," he said. "We bowled badly with the new-ball. We didn't use it well. That allowed them to get set and they played well.
"We'll have to see how tomorrow goes. There was a little bit of help later on. I didn't get too many breakthroughs but there was quite a bit of bounce on offer. Our bowlers have used the second new-ball well. So I hope that we come back tomorrow and bowl well."
Yasir, who may have been close to losing his place for the match, explained how he had tried to experiment with pace and line to find a way past Warner. "I changed and mixed my pace around quite a bit today," he said. "I bowled slow and also at times a bit fast. You have to do that on these pitches. Your ball can skid with the faster one and bring you a wicket. I tried my best to bowl at one spot, which I've done in the past and they played me well.
"Today I did the same, but also with some variations and they played me well again. There wasn't much support from the wicket. It's just the second day of the Test. You just need to find the right spot from where you can get the ball to jump and get you wickets at short-leg and at close-in positions. And if the ball breaks even a bit off the pitch, there's a chance of getting an edge to slip.
"That's what I tried but without much success since there wasn't much turn off the wicket. But I'll try to do the same tomorrow morning and hopefully it'll work out."