Joe Root leads England to 3-0 series victory over Pakistan
Joe Root walked off Edgbaston with his bat raised, unbeaten on 62, the series sealed at 3-0, and a very different England to the one that stumbled into this summer.
Around him, the noise still swirled. It has done all season.
Jordan Cox, 59 not out, shared the winning stand that dragged England out of a brief wobble and into a comfortable eight‑wicket victory over Pakistan in the third Test. The scoreline looks emphatic. The journey to it has been anything but.
From chaos to control
This has been a summer framed by upheaval. Ben Stokes’ shock retirement. Brendon McCullum’s sacking. Off‑field distractions that kept dragging the focus away from the middle.
“In chaos you learn a lot about the group of players you have,” Root said afterwards. He has lived that chaos more than most.
England began the season with Stokes still captain, backed to continue alongside McCullum despite last winter’s Ashes defeat by Australia. Then came the curfew breach, Stokes left out for the second Test against New Zealand in June, and Root suddenly back in charge on a temporary basis.
One Test later, Stokes was gone from the format. McCullum followed, sacked after the series defeat by New Zealand. Root, captain from 2017 to 2022, was handed the job again, this time full-time, this time as the steady hand after the storm.
He has not tried to reinvent himself. He has calmed everything around him.
A different England
Under Root’s second reign, a side once questioned for its professionalism has looked more grown-up, more adaptable. The cricket has not always been perfect, but the noise around it has changed.
That does not mean the circus left town. The build-up to the second Test was overshadowed by an incident involving Brydon Carse outside a nightclub in Derby. England still had to answer questions that had nothing to do with length, line or batting orders.
Root leaned into that responsibility.
“There’s been a lot of chaos around this series before a ball was bowled,” he said. “The way we’ve handled it on and off the field, the way everyone understands what is expected of them – both as a player and how we want to carry ourselves – is a really good thing.
“The start of the series we wanted 3-0 and we’ve been clinical enough to do that.”
Clinical is the word. England did wobble in Birmingham, their four-man pace attack toiling against Pakistan’s lower order on Friday. The visitors refused to fold, dragged the match deeper than Root would have liked, and briefly raised the possibility of a nervy chase.
The pressure finally told the other way. Root anchored, Cox blossomed, and the chase turned from tricky to routine.
New faces, new edge
This has not been a summer of big names carrying the old weight. It has been a summer of opportunity.
Dan Lawrence stepped in for Stokes and looked like he belonged. Cox, still early in his international journey, ended the series with the composure of a man who has been here for years. Jamie Smith’s keeping drew praise, his batting looked assured. Harry Brook continues to look every inch the generational talent many inside the game believe he is.
“The bowling attack has everything,” former captain Michael Vaughan said, panning his eye across the options on show.
The talent is obvious. The question is what they do with it.
Root keeps returning to what happens away from the scoreboard.
“We’re not the finished article,” he told BBC Test Match Special. “We’re not going to kid ourselves. That’ll be a constant work in progress.
“The culture of this team is not something that’s going to happen overnight, it’s something we’re going to have to live and breathe day in, day out.
“But there’s no reason we can’t.
“It’s a good set of lads, really good guys that work incredibly hard and performances like this and commitment to what we’re trying to achieve, both on and off the field, will be what earns trust and respect to everyone that supports us.”
The words matter because the past few months have tested that culture relentlessly. England have had to show they can behave like a serious Test side as well as play like one.
Work in progress, judgement to come
Vaughan, never shy of a verdict, echoed Root’s realism.
He called this England a “work in progress” and issued the reminder no one inside the dressing room needs: “We can’t judge this England team against Pakistan. Let’s not get too excited but what you see is a huge amount of talent.”
Then came the line that will hang over Root’s second stint.
“They have not won a five-Test series since 2017. That is what you get judged on.”
A 3-0 sweep over Pakistan, sealed by Root and Cox under the Edgbaston sun, shows England are in a better place than when this tumultuous summer began. The real verdict will arrive when this reshaped, re-focused side walks into a five-Test war and finds out if all this hard-won maturity can finally carry them through.
