Saqlain Mushtaq stamped his influence on this winter's series by taking just 62 deliveries to shatter England's confident start to the opening Test against Pakistan.

Until Saqlain was introduced for his third spell of the opening day, England had dominated from the moment captain Nasser Hussain had won a crucial toss on a wicket which is expected to turn more and more as the match develops.

Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick were enjoying themselves with an unbroken 134-run opening partnership and all the pre-match fears about England's ability to play spin after such a long absence on the sub-continent seemed unfounded.

Less than an hour later, though, Hussain's pre-match warning that the unfamiliar conditions would ''be a test for everyone'' became apparent after Saqlain claimed four for 14 in 62 balls and left England hanging on at 195 for four.

Despite weeks of training by England in the nets, roughing up the wickets to try to manufacture the conditions they would face in the middle, Saqlain only served to reinforce the realisation that there is no substitute for experience against a bowler of his high quality.

''It's a new challenge for us, it's a different way of playing the game with lots of deliveries in quick succession so your concentration and mental stamina comes into play,'' explained Atherton.

''With a fast bowler you get maybe two minutes between each delivery, but here it's rapid fire at you and you have to make sure your concentration is good and you have a gameplan.''

Until Saqlain's final spell, England's tactics had gone better than perhaps even they had hoped with the openers handling the new ball attack of Wasim Akram and Abdur Razzaq without any great alarms.

Even when Pakistan introduced Saqlain and Mushtaq Ahmed in tandem from the 16th over of the day, it failed to shake their composure.

Trescothick played in the aggressive style which has helped make such a success of his fledgling England career while Atherton provided a more studied and cautious approach, keeping the scoreboard ticking over with well-judged nudges and pushes.

Trescothick had dominated the opening partnership with six boundaries in his superb 71, but as a memorable century beckoned, Saqlain struck. Trescothick attempted to sweep but mistimed his shot and the ball looped comfortably to Salim Elahi at square leg.

Atherton drove Shahid Afridi's leg-spin to the cover boundary to reach 61 and join the likes of Graham Gooch, David Gower and Colin Cowdrey as only the sixth Englishman to have passed 7,000 Test runs.

Despite even passing Sir Don Bradman's Test aggregate of 6,996 runs - albeit in twice as many Tests - Atherton regarded the milestone in typically pragmatic fashion, claiming: ''I don't really play for statistics.''

Yet after witnessing the manner of Trescothick's demise, he followed in almost identical fashion by sweeping Saqlain to Yousuf Youhana at backward square for 73.

With Hussain missing from his treasured number three spot for treatment on his bad back, Graham Thorpe was promoted and almost became Saqlain's third victim but was given a reprieve by debutant Qaiser Abbas dropping him at slip on two.

Alec Stewart was not so fortunate, pushing forward looking for the turn only to fall leg before to a delivery which went straight on to bring England's captain to the crease for a crucial innings with only 11 overs remaining.

Hussain began impressively enough by marching down the pitch to drive Saqlain back over his head for four. He tried again in his next over, but this time Saqlain spotted his advance and dropped a little shorter, Hussain looping the ball into the deep where Wasim took a juggling catch running from mid-off.

Fortunately, Graeme Hick did not make the same mistake and successfully survived the final seven overs to at least give England hope of pushing on towards a competitive score on the second day