MULTAN: England's Joe Root and Harry Brook on Thursday reached their double centuries to turn their first innings trail into a lead against Pakistan's 556-run total on the fourth day of the first Test at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

With Root and Harry Brook on the crease with 259* and 218* to their names, respectively, the visitors are now leading by 102 runs with the score at 658-3.

Root, who eclipsed Alastair Cook as England's top test run-scorer, picked up from where he left off on Wednesday and became the first batsman from his country to make 20,000 international runs in the morning session with a driven boundary.

The former captain was handed a reprieve on 186 when Babar Azam dropped the simplest of catches at mid-wicket, and he made the most of it to reach his sixth double century with a single before celebrating by kissing the badge on his helmet.

In reaching the milestone, Root went past Cook again with only Wally Hammond ahead of him in England's list with seven double tons.

Brook then became the latest member of the club to delight the travelling English fans, who stayed on their feet to cheer when Root eased to his 250 with a scooped boundary in the same over bowled by Naseem Shah.

Television replays showed the ball had struck Root's pads but the 33-year-old did not complain and went on to better his previous best of 254.

With the visitors surpassing the national side's total, the Shan Masood-led side also faced a setback earlier in the day as the team's leg-spinner Abrar Ahmad didn't come out on the field due to fever.

The spinner has so far been wicketless in his 35 overs where he conceded 174 runs.

Playing XI

Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir