England Complete Clean Sweep Against Pakistan at Edgbaston
England walked out on Saturday morning expecting a routine stroll. Within six balls, the series finale was dangling over a cliff.
Chasing just 130 to win the Third Rothesay Test and complete a 3-0 sweep over Pakistan, England were suddenly 2-2, their openers gone, Edgbaston stunned into anxious silence and Pakistan sensing one of Test cricket’s great ambushes. By lunch, Joe Root and Jordan Cox had turned the panic into procession.
Root, reprieved once by the third umpire and once by Pakistan’s slip cordon, finished 62 not out. Cox, cool and uncluttered, matched him stroke for stroke in a mature 59*. Together they stitched an unbroken stand of 128 to drag England from chaos to an eight-wicket win and close one of the most turbulent English summers in memory on an unexpectedly emphatic note.
From 2-2 to cruise control
The target was modest. The jeopardy was not.
Muhammad Abbas, nagging as ever, needed only one ball to rip open the chase. Ben Duckett, England’s only centurion of the summer but a man short of runs against Pakistan, edged a perfect outswinger and walked for a golden duck. Four balls later, Emilio Gay was pinned on the shin, stone dead lbw. He burned a review in frustration, his bat swishing angrily at the turf, and trudged off with his average for the summer slipping under 25.
2-2. Edgbaston shrank. England’s dressing room stiffened. The same attack that had been flayed by Pakistan’s lower order the previous evening suddenly looked menacing again.
Root and Cox had to survive, first and foremost. Root almost didn’t. On 23, he dragged Mohammad Ali onto his stumps with a loose drive, only for the big screen to reveal Ali had overstepped. A no-ball. A life. Later, on 34, Root edged Abbas between two motionless slips, the ball bisecting the pair and with it Pakistan’s belief.
Cox, by contrast, barely flinched. Compact, precise and busy, the Essex right-hander looked more secure than his captain. He left well, drove when the ball over-pitched and refused to be drawn into the scatter of nerves around him. As Pakistan’s initial burst faded, Cox and Root began to collect runs with increasing ease, clipping through mid-wicket, punching off the back foot, nudging singles that slowly drained the visitors’ energy.
By the time Root steered the winning runs just before lunch, the early drama felt like a different match.
Root’s return, England’s reset
For Root, this was more than just another chase ticked off. It capped a successful return to the captaincy he reclaimed when Ben Stokes retired in June. England came into this series with no coach, no settled leadership and a record of two wins in 10 Tests. They leave it with three on the bounce, a clean sweep, and at least a semblance of direction before a demanding winter.
The performance, though, was far from flawless. For two and a half Tests, Pakistan barely laid a glove on England. When they finally did, England wobbled.
On Friday evening, with Pakistan 0-2 in their second innings and the prospect of a two-day finish looming, the tourists finally fought back. Shan Masood’s 95, Babar Azam’s 76, Awais’ 59 and, above all, Razaullah’s extraordinary 81 turned a mismatch into a contest. England’s plans disintegrated under the debutant’s assault. Fields scattered, lengths disappeared, composure frayed. A target that should have been trivial began to swell into something awkward.
An extra hundred runs on the board and England might have been staring at defeat. Pakistan will look back at that first-innings 133 and wince. That collapse on day one, with Ollie Robinson running through them and Azan Awais lbw to the very first ball of the series at Headingley, set the tone for a tour that never truly recovered.
New questions for Fleming
Stephen Fleming, due to arrive in the UK as England’s new head coach in the coming days, will find a full in-tray waiting. The openers sit near the top.
Duckett’s numbers since the start of the Ashes are stark: an average of 23, and against Pakistan he has not passed 20 in five innings despite that lone century earlier in the summer. Gay has shown flashes – three half-centuries in his first Test summer – but his returns remain modest and his dismissal here, followed by a wasted review, will not help his cause.
The contrast with Cox could hardly be sharper. Thrown into a tense chase with the series on the line, he looked like he had been there for years. This was his second composed contribution of the match after a first-innings 50 from Robinson had helped England to 453, and it strengthens his case to keep his place when Jacob Bethell returns from injury. Gay’s immediate future in the XI looks fragile.
England will also know their fielding and tactical discipline deserted them when Razaullah went on the rampage. The debutant, one of seven players parachuted into the squad after Pakistan’s chaotic mid-tour overhaul, had already impressed with the ball, dismissing Root in his very first over in Test cricket. His brutal, fearless 81 on Friday night, dismantling England’s attack and turning a procession into a contest, will linger long in the memory.
Pakistan’s shambolic tour, Razaullah’s silver lining
Strip away the last 48 hours and Pakistan’s tour has been a mess.
They were behind from the first ball of the series. They threatened to abandon the second Test over a Sky interview with the sons of Imran Khan. After defeat at Lord’s, the board sacked head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed, brought in Mike Hesson and axed seven players from the squad. The political and selection fallout will rumble on long after the team boards its flight home.
Yet out of that chaos came Razaullah. Fast, aggressive, unafraid of the stage, he has given Pakistan a genuine positive to cling to. With the ball he hurried England’s best; with the bat he transformed a dead rubber into a genuine scrap. On a terrible tour, he looks like a star in the making.
England, for their part, have survived the scare. They have not answered every question, but they have rediscovered the habit of winning. Next comes a white-ball series against Sri Lanka in Southampton on Tuesday, with Brendon McCullum resuming charge and Kevin Pietersen joining the backroom staff, before a winter that takes them to South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia.
The clean sweep is banked. The turbulence is not over. How this nervy, newly reshaped England handle the step up in class this winter will tell us far more than a frazzled fourth day at Edgbaston ever could.
