Moeen, who is playing what is likely to be his last Test, pulled up sore after taking a single while batting with Brook shortly after lunch on the first day. He received treatment from England physio Steve Griffin, and took painkillers before resuming his innings on 11 off 37 balls.

Clearly struggling to move freely, Moeen opted to tee off and flogged 23 runs off his next nine balls, including two sixes over midwicket off Pat Cummins, a ramped upper-cut for four off the same bowler and a pull off Todd Murphy.

But he fell for a 47-ball 34 when he was bowled by Murphy, and his dismissal prompted an England collapse from 184 for 3 to 283 all out.

He did not take the field when England came out to bowl in the evening session. “Moeen Ali has a right groin injury,” a team spokesperson said. “He will continue to be assessed and will not field for the rest of today.”

Speaking at the close of play, Brook – whose fourth-wicket stand with Moeen was eventually worth 111 – said that his team-mate’s response to the setback had been “perfect”.

“That was his decision,” Brook said of the step-up in tempo. “As soon as the physio left the pitch he said, ‘shall I just tee off now?” I actually said to him: ‘You should have been doing that from the start.’

“He is one of the best power-hitters in the world and we’ve seen that in white-ball cricket, in franchise cricket, so there’s probably not any better men out there if you want him to go smack it really. It’s a shame he didn’t last a bit longer but the way he went about it after getting injured was perfect I thought.”

Understandably, the pair dealt largely in boundaries in the latter stage of their stand. “I think we still could have easily got ones, because they decide to put the field back as soon as we played a few big shots,” Brook added. “I didn’t think that was a problem, but obviously he was in a bit of pain so there weren’t going to be many twos out there.”

Asked about the prospect of touring India in January-March 2024 this week, he told the Daily Mail: “No chance I’ll do India. I can’t see it happening.” And while he conceded that “things can change whenever”, he is unlikely to feature again after this match.

England do have another spin option in their ranks in the form of Joe Root’s offspin. Captain Ben Stokes practised his own offbreaks in the nets on Wednesday but is highly unlikely to bowl a ball this week.