England captain Ollie Pope credited Joe Root and Harry Brook for their exemplary performance in the team's momentous Test win in Multan. Both batters hit career-best scores and were involved in a record breaking 454-run partnership as England put up a mammoth 823 for 7 in their first innings. England scored their runs at 5.48 runs to the over, a rate that helped them get enough of a lead while giving the bowlers enough time to push for a win.

"I think the pace at which they batted is crucial for that and you kinda need that on these flat pitches as we saw last time around at Pakistan," Pope told Sky Sports.

"They play such different games but they both score at a pretty good rate. Obviously, the way Brooky uses power and then Rooty has kinda got a cushion on his bat so he just sticks with twos. But I think going in last night, they [Pakistan] would have been knackered from chasing the ball around and the way they played was just phenomenal."

England head coach Brendon McCullum had told Sky Sports earlier that Pakistan's 556 was under-par on the flat and unresponsive Multan pitch. Pope, however, begged to differ and stated that he had faith in his batters to go out and dwarf that score.

"Whenever you get 550, whatever pitch it is, it is always a good score. But, we also knew if we bat with anything like we know we can, then we know that we can go, we can go really big. And obviously, we've got two greedy Yorkshiremen and they did exactly that. Obviously, the skills they showed and the fitness they showed as well. The fact that we knew we needed a massive score kept them driving, sort of driving towards those massive massive numbers and massive credit to them for putting us in a position to win that game."

Pope however missed out on scoring any runs due to a stunning catch at mid-wicket by Aamer Jamal. He admitted that he might have felt envious earlier on during his career, but now revels seeing his teammates succeed. He said he was looking forward to the next two games to make some match-winning contributions.

"Yeah, absolutely. I think when I was a bit younger, early on in my professional career, that would have been a situation I would have not hated because we're in a great position but in my mind I would have thought 'ugh, why can't that be me' but I was fortunate enough to make some runs in the last game [Oval Test vs Sri Lanka] and I'll look at the next two games to make some match-winning performance. But I loved every bit of watching the 2 Yorkshiremen bat, what they did was seriously special, it was a joy to watch and very pleased for them."

As Olly Stone has now gone back for his wedding and will be unavailable for the next Test, Pople dismissed thoughts of bringing in a spare seamer but said that skipper Ben Stokes could make a return to the squad in the second Test beginning on October 15.

"We've got a few days off our feet now, we'll keep it as relaxed as possible. I know there's always that way of looking at things. But obviously, there's been Matt Potts on the sidelines who's been bowling lovely and he's just waiting for his go.

"Ben Stokes is also looking to come back and play as well. I don't know. I'm not 100% sure [if he'll play the next Test]. He's been training very well this week and he's as keen as ever to get playing again. Fingers crossed for everyone, he's all good."