The sun finally broke through over Edgbaston on the third morning. For Pakistan’s batters, it only exposed the gulf that has defined this series.
England stand eight wickets away from a 3-0 clean sweep, Pakistan resuming on 52 for two and still 268 runs short of making the hosts bat again. The numbers tell one story – Pakistan averaging 15.90 runs per wicket across the series, their lowest against England in any three-Test campaign since Tony Lock and Jim Laker strangled New Zealand in 1958 – but the mood in Birmingham tells another. This feels over.
Robinson and Archer tighten the vice
Jofra Archer, whose spell last night was cut short by rain, took the ball first up. His second delivery of the day reared and seamed, beating Shan Masood’s tentative prod and setting the tone: England hunting, Pakistan hanging on.
From the other end, Ollie Robinson settled into the kind of relentless groove that has defined his summer. His first over of the day, the 14th of the innings, was a small masterpiece: Azan Awais beaten three times in six balls, Robinson switching to around the wicket for the final delivery of a maiden that crackled with threat. If he ever bores his grandchildren, it will be with tales of 2026 – 28 wickets at 7.75 so far, and counting.
Robinson stayed around the wicket to Azan in his next over, dragging the left-hander into playing more often than he wanted. Azan survived, but not comfortably. After a cluster of defensive strokes, he swung at a short ball down the leg side, missed, and watched it thud into the boundary boards for four byes with Jordan Cox standing up and helpless. The over finished with a nasty lifter that smashed into Azan’s chest. No words needed. England knew they were on top; Pakistan knew it too.
Archer, operating in short, bristling bursts, went after Masood. In the 15th over the Pakistan captain endured the full range: two plays and misses, a sumptuous drive for four, then an inside-edged pull that thudded into his own body and dropped short of the bowler. It was survival, not progress.
By the 18th over, Robinson was bending the ball both ways from a nagging length. Azan pulled him crisply in front of square for a couple, but the reply was venomous: two balls whistling past the edge, an lbw shout turned down only on height. Beautiful, hostile, exacting bowling.
The next over brought only a faint loosening. Masood eased Archer through mid-off for two, moving to 28, while Azan quietly ticked along. At 19 overs, Pakistan had crawled to 67 for two, Azan 32, Masood 29, the sun high and bright, the pitch true, the bowlers just beginning to tire. On another tour, in another year, this might have been the platform for a fightback. Not this one.
England’s batters cash in, but centuries go begging
England’s position of dominance stems from the ruthlessness of their second day with the bat. Starting on 156 for four, they piled up 453 all out by tea, turning a competitive total into a match – and series – defining lead.
Yet three of their middle-order architects walked off with a twinge of regret. Harry Brook was the first to squander a hundred, run out for 75 in a mix-up that felt entirely avoidable. Dan Lawrence followed with 65, chopping on after looking, in his own words, “like I was going to make a really big score” on a surface that had flattened under a tiring attack. Jamie Smith, batting through the pain of a suspected broken finger, made 69 before falling short of a maiden Test century.
Lawrence’s summer, though, has finally started to match the promise that has followed him for years. Three half-centuries in four innings, runs scored with authority and presence, and a sense that he belongs in this England dressing room rather than just visiting it. The yelp of frustration when he dragged on at Edgbaston told its own story; by the evening, with Pakistan two down and miles behind, contentment had taken over. The team are in control. His place feels secure.
Pakistan’s tour limps towards the exit
If England’s march towards 3-0 feels inevitable, Pakistan’s slow trudge to the end of the tour feels just as certain. The mood in the stands reflects it. One Pakistan supporter wandered Edgbaston on day two with a small blackboard: “Free Imran Khan … and get him in the team,” he had scrawled, before joking with police that he wanted to report a crime “by the 11 players out there on the field.”
The gallows humour fits. From the moment of their “howling collapse” on the opening day of this Test, Pakistan have been chasing shadows. The heavy grey cloud that rolled in from the south-west just as they began their second innings only deepened the gloom. The floodlights flickered on, making Robinson and Archer’s new-ball spells look even more menacing. The lights didn’t help the batters. They simply highlighted what was coming.
Saim Ayub and Azan tried to dig in, but Robinson struck twice before stumps to leave Pakistan 52 for two overnight, the deficit still monstrous. When play began under clear skies on the third morning, the situation hadn’t changed. Only the weather had.
A series that feels decided
Around the main event, the English summer rolls on. At Trent Bridge, Olly Stone bulldozed Hampshire in the County Championship, where the title race tightens by the day. At Lord’s, state-school cricket finally had its moment in the sun, with the Knight-Stokes Cup bringing pupils from Altrincham grammar school, John Hampden grammar school, Penistone grammar school and Chelmsford County high school onto the same turf that has hosted Test cricket and World Cup finals.
At Edgbaston, though, this series is drifting to an ending that has long been signposted. Friday is the only sold-out day of this third Test, yet even that guarantee comes with a question: will the crowd actually fill the seats, or has the lack of jeopardy drained some of the energy from a contest that was effectively settled on day one?
For Joe Root’s side, there is still work to do – eight wickets to take, a job to finish – but no real sense of peril. The schedule has even been nudged to make up for lost time: lunch at 1.15pm, tea at 4.10pm, England eyeing an early finish and a free weekend.
The script feels written. Pakistan have “two chances, Slim and none,” as the old line goes, and the selectors sent Slim home. The only real intrigue now is how quickly Robinson, Archer and company can end it, and how long this Pakistan side will need to recover from a tour that has exposed every flaw under the harshest possible light.
