Haseeb Hameed comes of age to warm Alastair Cook and England’s cockles | Ali Martin

The 19-year-old opener compiled an unbeaten half-century on debut but it was the manner in which he did it that suggested Cook’s latest opening partner might be here to stay

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Alastair Cook described Haseeb Hameed as unflappable when announcing the 19-year-old’s Test debut would come in Rajkot but it is pretty safe to assume he did not envisage his new opening partner to be the type that launches straight sixes early on in potentially perilous situations.

But just six overs into England’s second innings on the fourth day, with a session to negotiate and a lead of 49 to bolster, the right-hander decided the aerial route represented a viable response to the left-arm spin of Ravi Jadeja and duly danced down the pitch to strike the ball cleanly down the ground for what was just the second time he has cleared the rope in his first-class career.

Related: Haseeb Hameed’s maiden half-century puts England in charge against India

If it felt like the sheer audacity of the shot made the ’Baby Boycott’ tag he has been saddled with instantly (and perhaps thankfully) redundant, then the innings in which it featured, an unbeaten 62 from 116 deliveries faced, certainly fitted Cook’s own description, with the two-and-a-half hour stay at the crease one of beautiful soft hands, nimble footwork and crisp timing that laced the ball between fielders.

Those who have watched Lancashire this year will nod knowingly at these attributes but then the step to Test level can do funny things to a batsman. And yet here was the fifth youngest cricketer to play for England, and the second youngest to open after Jack Crawford in 1908, taking on the world’s No1 side in their backyard, with the worlds No1 bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, twirling away on a pitch that, while yet to crumble as many predicted, was still producing the odd hand grenade.

It was perhaps telling of the youngster’s assuredness that a wily old pro like Ashwin found himself convincing his captain to call for an optimistic review when, on 48, Hameed padded up to a ball well outside off-stump that was soon shown to be missing. Just two deliveries later, at the other end, Hameed opened up and dabbed a delicious late dab off the leg-spinner Amit Mishra past backward point for his fourth four and with it, a maiden Test half-century on debut.

In the stands watching on at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium were Hameed’s family, who dutifully travelled around Bangladesh in anticipation of his first cap and had then driven six hours from Umraj, the Gujarat village from where they emigrated, to attend this Test match following his brother Numan’s wedding last weekend.

Related: India v England, first Test: day four – as it happened!

“I see it as fate,” said Hameed in his thick Bolton accent on the eve of making his Test debut here in Rajkot and while it may have been by accident rather than design, his omission for England’s draw on the ragging pitches witnessed in Chittagong and Dhaka may also have been something of a blessing in disguise.

But nonetheless this was no simple task he and Cook were presented with and, had a cluster of wickets fallen late on the fourth day, India’s confidence would have swelled at the same rate that the mental scars from that harrowing second Test in Bangladesh reopened.

As it was, Hameed showed such calmness beyond his years and certainly early on in the piece he adapted better than his partner at the other end, a batsman 12 years and 135 caps his senior, with over 10,000 Test runs already in the tucked away in bank.

Hameed’s temperament, one that had already been demonstrated both in assured 31 compiled on day one to the tidy work at short leg that reaped three catches, has long been talked up, while his dedication to the training is another feature to have impressed the England management, to the extent that Paul Farbrace, the assistant coach, joked they were considering commandeering a crane to help remove him from the nets.

So for the first time in four and half years, when Andrew Strauss called time on his career and a 4,711-run alliance with Cook at the top of the order, this talented young Lancastrian may have his captain pondering whether to cancel his subscription to the online matchmaking service for lonely opening batsmen.

With nine previous matches and a string of awkward dates in the memory bank, a conservative character like Cook may hold fire just for now. But he could be forgiven for feeling some initial fluttering feelings about the prospects of his new batting partner in what has been a debut of huge promise.