Joe Root Responds to ‘No Fight’ Jibe as England Aim for Edgbaston Sweep
Joe Root walked into his pre-match press conference with a series already boxed off and a chance of a 3-0 sweep at Edgbaston on the horizon. What he did not expect was the line of questioning.
What’s it like, he was asked, playing a team offering “no fight”?
Root’s response was instant, and sharp.
“Absolutely we have found Pakistan a challenge,” the England captain said. “I think that's a bit disrespectful to both Pakistan as a team and to us as a team.”
England have crushed Pakistan in this three-match series. An innings-and-103-run hammering at Headingley followed a 194-run win at Lord’s. The numbers are brutal: Pakistan have not reached 200 once in four innings, repeatedly dismantled by a pace battery of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
On the scoreboard, it looks like a mismatch. Root refuses to paint it that way.
“I don't think we've allowed them to get into games because of how well we've played,” he said, pointing to England’s control of conditions and tempo. “How quickly we've read the situations and the surfaces that we've had.”
Pakistan arrive in Birmingham in turmoil. The Pakistan Cricket Board has ripped up the script mid-tour: seven players sent home after the Lord’s defeat, Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed removed, white-ball coach Mike Hesson parachuted in to oversee the finale. Seven new players added, five of them uncapped at Test level. A reset on the fly.
It has led to a familiar, damning verdict: this is one of Pakistan’s weakest Test sides in decades.
Root wants no part of that narrative. Not with a ball yet to be bowled at Edgbaston.
“I think it's very easy to say one team is excellent and one team is poor. Normally it's somewhere in the middle,” he said. The England captain framed the series not as a story of Pakistani inadequacy, but of his own side’s ruthlessness.
“If one team has been outstanding then the other team can't have been poor and vice-versa. I think it's important to live in that middle area somewhere and understand that that's not how it is.”
England have seized every opening. They have out-bowled, out-batted and out-thought a side scrambling for identity. But Root is acutely aware of what complacency can do in a dead rubber, especially against a team that still carries talent, even if not yet Test-hardened.
“Regardless of what's happened over the last two games, this week it's a completely different proposition for us,” he warned.
Inside the Pakistan dressing room, a new group is trying to settle amid the noise. Uncapped players, a fresh voice in Hesson, and the lingering accusation that they have “shown no fight”. For some, this Edgbaston Test will be a first glimpse of the highest level. For others, it may be a last chance to convince the selectors they belong.
Root, at least, is not underestimating them.
“There's a very talented group of players in that dressing room and you've got to be ready for it,” he said. “So we'll make sure that we are.”
England chase a clean sweep. Pakistan chase credibility and a foothold in chaos. One side looks dominant, the other disjointed. But in Root’s mind, that is exactly when a wounded opponent can suddenly bare its teeth.
