Contrast that with Jonathan Trott’s hesitancy at shouldering arms to Talha, which resulted in him being given out lbw for nought, and Ian Bell’s impatient sweep at Yasir, which also led to him being lbw for a duck, and it was obvious which worked best.
Cook was not flawless and enjoyed two lives, a caught and bowled off Talha when 84, and another in the gully just before Talha, who has played one Test for Pakistan, got him to edge to the keeper.
But otherwise his was the road map England must follow if they are to make competitive totals in these conditions, something later confirmed by Graham Gooch, England’s batting coach.
“The players have to stay strong mentally,” said Gooch.
“You don’t become a bad player over a couple of innings. The two bowlers who got wickets today bowled pretty well. But what was good for us is this pitch is behaving like the conditions we think we are going to get.
"We expect attritional cricket where you have to work hard for your runs and even harder for your wickets. That is the style of play required that our team have get to get their heads around.”
Talha, 23, worked up a good pace with the new ball, twice beating Strauss for speed early on.
His efforts were rewarded in his fourth over, when England’s captain offered a tentative forward defensive and the ball flew to Sarfraz Ahmad, the keeper, off the inside edge. Three balls later Trott followed, his failure to offer a shot a misjudgment borne of Talha’s impressive speed.
Pietersen, out of sorts in the last match, looked more assertive on Wednesday. His travails against left-arm spin appear to be related to whether he is prepared to play off the back foot or not.
Pietersen’s default setting against spin is to lunge forward, but when done on slow pitches this reduces his run-scoring options drastically.
Getting bogged down then cranks up anxiety levels to the point where a big shot, which comes with extra risk, seems to be the only option.
Playing back gives you more time to see how much the ball is turning and to place it better for singles and twos. Trouble is, having done it well enough to reach 38, he was then bowled by Yasir stepping back to give himself room to cut backwards of square.
Bell, by contrast, is usually a good player of spin but he appears too obsessed with dominating bowlers from the start. Gooch has set him the task of being the best batsman in the world but when conditions are as benign as they are here, you need to sit in the game longer before playing the fancy paddle sweep that have so far brought about his undoing in two of his three innings here.
The same criticism could broadly be levelled at Eoin Morgan, though he perished playing a more rustic shot than Bell, his lofted sweep off Yasir finding Raza Hussain at deep square leg.
Yasir, a short wrist-spinner with admirable control, was getting some slow turn, but nothing so alarming to require raising the risk level to that extent.
Some bat flailing from Graeme Swann allowed England to declare and get 30 minutes bowling at the PCB XI, enough time for Prior, who made 46 of the 90-run partnership he shared with Cook, to drop left-hander Afiq Rahim, off Swann.
With Monty Panesar playing as well, and with Steven Finn left out despite the resting of James Anderson and Stuart Broad (replaced by Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions), England have moved away from the three seamers and one spinner attack that has served them so well over the past two and half years.
Whether we can read too much into it, other than it is a shoot-out between Finn, Tremlett and Onions for the third seamer’s spot, is unclear, as bowling resources will not be as stretched over three days as five.
