Dawson marks return with wicket as England take edge

It was 2,928 days, or eight years and six days.

- RICHARD JOLLY AT EMIRATES OLD TRAFFORD

Or 102 Tests. That was as many Tests as Ian Botham played and he ensured many of them were eventful.

Liam Dawson’s exile from Test cricket also spanned eras. When he had last played, some of the names on either side - Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Morne Morkel - evoke another age.

When Dawson had played his third and, seemingly final, Test, Yashavi Jaiswal was just 15. When he played his fourth, Jaiswal was a superstar. And when he bowled the seventh delivery of a comeback he thought would never come, Jaiswal became his belated eighth Test wicket. Amla, now 42, was his seventh, back in 2017.

If good things come to those who wait, Dawson had waited longer than most. “The age I am at, I probably thought Test cricket was gone but to be back involved is really cool,” he said. A fourth Test featured a rivalry that has been building during the series, Ben Stokes responding to Shubman Gill’s escalating the war of words on Tuesday with a roar as he dismissed his opposite number, but also a newer duel. Dawson against Jaiswal was deserving county pro against potential great. It also ended swiftly.

Like Jofra Archer at Lord’s, a long absence from Test cricket came to a cathartic end with an early wicket. Dawson had a further wait, half a day in conditions that suited swing and seam more than spin, elapsing before Stokes turned to the 35-year-old. When he tossed a ball up outside off stump, tempting Jaiswal to drive, he instead edged to Harry Brook at slip.