England v West Indies: Joe Root digs in after Mark Stoneman hits 50

But at least they will do so more convinced than at any time this summer about a key position in their batting line-up for the winter after Mark Stoneman passed his opener’s examination at the third attempt.

The former Durham man, now plying his trade at Surrey, did not do so with colours flying high in a sun-drenched sky.

His 52 was gritty and characterful rather than flashy, taking a hit on his left little finger which caused what was described as a “slight dislocation” – reset on-field by the physio – before carrying on to raise his bat.

However there were enough sparkles in the grit to suggest there may be a diamond in there somewhere.

And after 11 previous attempts to replace Andrew Strauss as Alastair Cook’s opening partner having foundered, England may have got lucky at the 11th hour with the Ashes less than three months away.

West Indies had piled on the runs on Saturday and continued yesterday stretching an overnight lead of 71 runs to 169, moving from 329-5 to 427 all out.

In reply, England were 171-3 last night with a narrow lead of two runs.

Joe Root was unbeaten on 45 despite a couple of scares after tea – dropped on 10 and having successfully overturned an lbw decision on 35 – and Dawid Malan with him on 21.

He, too, had a lucky escape on four when UltraEdge showed he nicked a delivery from Shannon Gabriel only for West Indies to fail to challenge the not out decison.

Despite general misrepresentation of this contest in the build up as mis-match destined for a three-day finish, it is building in to an engrossing contest much to Headingley’s delight.

Yorkshire sold a handful of Bank Holiday tickets but with the weather set fair and adults at £15 and children and concessions a fiver, a healthy crowd is in store.

They will arrive to a match delicately poised after West Indies made life tough for England with both bat and ball, first the excellent Jason Holder (who bowled as well as any later) and Jermaine Blackwood threw the bat early, adding 75 for the eighth wicket as the tourists tail wagged.

Holder’s first action of an excellent personal day had been to keep out a hat-trick ball from Jimmy Anderson after the bowler kicked off the day with two wickets with the first two balls, bagging centurion Shai Hope and wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich.

It leaves him three short of 500 Test wickets. It could have been better start still for England had Moeen Ali held a simple chance off Blackwood had 21 off Stuart Broad’s bowling only for the all-rounder fumbled the simple catch.

Blackwood and his captain made Moeen squirm as they extended the advantage.

But in a a perverse way that lead and consequent pressure set the stage for a proper test of England’s rookie batsmen.

Stoneman, who had received a belter of a delivery from Kemar Roach at Edgbaston and got a superb ball from Shannon Gabriel to end his stay here.

But before he walked off, he looked to be in good control over both his attacking and defensive options, crunching some nice cuts, clips and drives and never looking particularly troubled against short-pitched pace.

He presents a more complex puzzle for international bowlers than Keaton Jennings and looks more physically robust than Haseeb Hameed.

Tom Westley in contrast is suffering with diminishing returns in the spotlight and could add only eight to his first innings three and getting out to a horrible shot, chasing a wide ball from Holder he had no business going after.

After the early promise of a half century at The Oval against South Africa, he has gone 29, 9, 8, 3, 8 and needs runs at Lord’s next week.

After spilling a host of chances in the first innings including both Root and centurion Ben Stokes, West Indies will be kicking themselves after Kyle Hope let the England captain through his fingers at gully when England were still 63 runs short of parity.

That it came at the end of a period when Roach and Gabriel had dried up the runs with five consecutive maidens and when even Root could not get them away made his escape a double frustration.