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Mohammad Amir became the youngest player in history to get his name on the Lord's Honours board in 2010, but that's not the image that that Test immediately evokes. Greg Chappell scored a brilliant 90 at the MCG to set his side up for a series win over New Zealand in 1981, though his involvement in that game has not been remembered in quite those terms. And Ali Usman might be having a successful late summer in England, but if what transpired at Headingley is replicated further south over the next fortnight, his time here may end up as an anecdote interesting only to him. Despite his excellent five-wicket haul in the first Test, Usman's left-arm spin should have been little more than Pakistan's relief crew. Mohammad Abbas and his mini-mes seem like an ill-suited Test pace attack for most conditions, but at a wet, dark and cold Headingley, they were presented with the best bowling conditions they could possibly have asked for. But on that second afternoon, after the first half of the day had been washed away, and with the light occupying that grey area which makes umpires twitch without quite calling for the meters, Pakistan's pace attack looked like tigers of the paper rather than cornered variety. With no chance of any support from the other end or - heaven forbid - the Pakistan fielding, Usman was thrust from the shadows to the main stage. From the time he was introduced, he bowled 22 of the remaining 43 overs all day, and was never once taken out of the attack. These conditions are not Usman's natural habitat. He was born in Vehari, a city close to Multan. Even by Pakistan's brutal standards, it experiences especially hot summers, and rarely the conditions in which he turned his arm over in Leeds. It's perhaps a shame that the sweaters Pakistan wore in the field appeared to have been knitted for giants - a better fit and Usman might have kept his on while bowling. Until the final hour of the day, Usman's main concern seemed to be ensuring that Pakistan were able to get through enough overs for a day's work. With Pakistan's fitness proving to be a shambles, a 36-year old Mohammad Abbas had already been overbowled, while Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali's threat - effective as it was - had waned. Critique by analytics may not necessarily do Usman any favours. At times in his marathon spell, he began to fall away, dropping a few too many short as the pressure lifted and fatigue kicked in. Any threat a spinner might pose was purely notional at this stage; England had, after all, decided not to play a specialist spinner at all. It is perhaps why England's control percentage against him hovered around 84%, higher than against either Abbas or Shahzad. As such, it may feel more comfortable to describe the wickets in the final half hour as falling rather than Usman taking them, given how far ahead England were by now and their obvious drop in intensity. But Usman understands the value of patience; six years ago, he was already 27 when Pakistan decided they were in the market for a new left-arm spinner, and handed a Test debut to 34-year old Noman Ali. Ever since then, Usman has continued to toil in the dingy nooks of domestic red-ball cricket, singularly devoted to the red-ball craft; he played one T20 match for Multan eight years ago, and appears to have sworn off them ever since. Even when he made his Test debut last month, it seemed something of a hospital pass; he was required for just ten overs on a surface where all 40 wickets fell to pace. And so he did the only thing he could do when things were out of his control; he waited. He waited until the surface offered just a hint of grip, and Dan Lawrence and Harry Brook grew slightly impatient. He was clinical enough to rip through the lower order, seemingly as aware of the importance of snatching up an opportunity as he was waiting for one. That it will all be forgotten due to the bedlam of the performance around him means he will only have to wait longer to get his due. Pakistan have quietly been hoping that London's savagely hot and dry summer will have an impact on the pitch that has been prepared at Lord's. It is a regular refrain from Pakistan; they were particularly upbeat after they beat a county scratch XI in scorching heat in Beckenham, a game in which Usman took 5 for 42 in the third innings. Earlier on Tuesday, Umar Gul spoke almost with a sense of betrayal about the abrupt change in the weather since Pakistan moved up to Headingley, where the sun and warmth was nowhere to be found for the best part of two days. Should Lord's, however, prove a haven for spin, it would represent an aberration from the recent norm. Over the last decade, Tests in the late summer have not automatically found themselves converted into crumbling dustbowls at this ground. Since 2016, spinners have averaged more than 55 runs between wickets at Lord's, comfortably the worst numbers for any venue in the country. It is The Oval, instead, that has proved more accommodating for spinners in the capital. Spin takes wickets every 31.70 runs there, the lowest average anywhere in England. So, if Usman thought the gates of fortune were suddenly opening for him, Lord's suggests there may yet be a padlock or two to unpick this week. But then again, there wasn't much recent history to suggest Usman would have gone on to become Pakistan's best bowler at overcast Headingley; there hadn't been an overseas spinner to take five wickets there since 1972. In Pakistan cricket, holding out for the best conditions to show what you can do is a mug's game; even Ali Usman cannot afford to wait that long.