Most runs scored by a team on the first day of a Test match (male)

England plundered 506 for 4 in just 75 overs on the opening day of the First Test against hosts Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on 1 December 2022. It meant that Australia’s 112-year-old opening-day Test record of 494 for 6 against South Africa at Sydney Cricket Ground on 9 December 1910 had finally been overhauled. As 500 was breached for the first time on day one of a Test match (the 2,478th in history), at an unconventional 6.74 runs per over, four England players – another first-day first – posted tons: Zak Crawley (122 off 111 balls), Ollie Pope (108 off 104 balls), Ben Duckett (107 off 110 balls) and Harry Brook (101 not out off 81 balls). The visitors raced to 174 without loss from 27 overs at the lunch break and were 332 for 3 from 54 overs at tea as their bold approach to batting under the captaincy of Ben Stokes paid dividends on a “day of carnage” in Rawalpindi.

“England were on their knees 24 hours ago, as a sickness bug decimated the camp... but they’ve come out and turned it up to the Maximus Decimus Meridius on a crazy day in Pindi,” reported ESPNcricinfo.

“This Test was in doubt until a few hours before the toss, but has well and truly got its donk on. At the start of day two, with 750 very much in England’s sights, they added: “England rocked up in Rawalpindi on day one, and began their latest assault on establishing Test cricket's New World Order. There was no shortage of material to get your teeth into yesterday, as England brought a shredder along and started feeding the record books through it.”

Later, match referee Andy Pycroft rated the playing surface at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium as “below average”, bemoaning a “very flat pitch which gave almost no assistance to any type of bowler”. An aggregate 1,768 runs were scored across the five days. Only Sri Lanka, with 509 for 9 in 104 overs at home to Bangladesh in Colombo on 22 July 2002 (day two of the match), have scored more runs than England in a single day of Test-match cricket.