For three days at Edgbaston, England coasted. On the fourth morning, they very nearly drove themselves into a ditch.
Chasing only 130 to complete a 3-0 sweep over Pakistan, the hosts somehow contrived to be 2-2 after five balls. Ben Duckett gone first ball. Emilio Gay pinned in front. The prospect of one of Test cricket’s great ambushes suddenly felt real.
And then Joe Root and Jordan Cox walked England back from the brink.
Root, reprieved by a no-ball on 23 and spilled in the slips on 34, finished unbeaten on 62. Cox, calm where others twitched, made 59 not out. Their unbroken stand of 128 dragged England from panic to an eight-wicket win, and turned a fraught morning into a series whitewash.
The scare, though, will stay with them.
A chase that should have been routine
The numbers said this should be straightforward. Pakistan’s 133 on the first day had left them miles behind. England’s 453, built on a spread of contributions – Harry Brook’s 75, Ollie Smith’s 69, Dan Lawrence’s 65, Gay’s 60, Ollie Robinson’s 50 – gave Root’s side a hefty 320-run lead. Even Pakistan’s spirited 449 second time around, fuelled by Shan Masood’s 95, Razaullah’s fearless 81, Babar Azam’s 76 and Azan Awais’ 59, only left England a modest fourth-innings target.
Yet the tone had shifted on Friday evening. Razaullah, on debut, had turned a dead rubber of an innings into a street fight. England’s plans disintegrated under his assault. Fields scattered, bowlers lost their lines, and suddenly a match that had looked like a three-day procession had grown teeth.
That chaos bled into Saturday morning.
Muhammad Abbas, all rhythm and relentlessness, opened up with a ball that Duckett could barely do more than nick. A perfect length, just enough movement, and Duckett’s bat offered the faintest kiss. Gone for a golden duck, his only century of the summer fading quickly in the memory.
Four balls later, Abbas straightened one into Gay’s shin. Plumb. Gay swished his bat in frustration, burned a review he never had a chance of winning, and trudged off. From 0-0 to 2-2, Edgbaston went from gentle murmur to tight-chested silence.
Root survives, Cox impresses
At that moment, England’s dressing room felt the weight. A small target suddenly looked awkward. The ball was talking. Abbas was snarling. The series narrative – Pakistan outclassed, England untroubled – wobbled.
Root, back as captain after Ben Stokes’ retirement in June, needed a calm partner and a little luck. He got both.
His fortune came via Mohammad Ali. Root, on 23, dragged a loose stroke back onto his stumps and started to walk. The big screen told a different story. Ali had overstepped. A no-ball. Root turned, came back, and Pakistan sagged.
Cox supplied the composure. Where Root flirted with danger – that edge threaded between static slips off a fired-up Abbas when he was on 34 – Cox looked secure, compact and unmoved by the noise around him. He left well, drove when it was there, and quietly turned the chase into a training drill.
As Pakistan’s hope drained away, England’s scoring rate climbed. Singles became crisp boundaries. The field spread, the voices dulled. By the time Root clipped the winning runs just before lunch, the early drama felt like a different game.
For Cox, this was more than just a red-ink 59. It was a statement. With Jacob Bethell due back from injury for the South Africa series in December, Cox has planted a firm flag in the ground for a place in that XI.
A summer of chaos, a clean sweep of results
Strip away the scoreline and this has been one of England’s messiest summers in years. Less than two months ago, they had no captain and no coach. Ben Stokes walked away from Test cricket. Brendon McCullum stepped aside. The dressing room was drifting.
Root’s return to the captaincy has steadied the ship, at least in terms of results. Three wins on the bounce after a run of two victories in 10 is a significant shift, even if Pakistan’s part in that revival has been shambolic for long stretches.
They were behind from the first ball of the series, when Robinson trapped Awais lbw at Headingley. They flirted with abandoning the second Test over a broadcast interview with Imran Khan’s sons. They sacked head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed after Lord’s, parachuted in Mike Hesson, and axed seven players from the squad. The fallout from that upheaval will rumble on long after this tour.
Only in the last two days at Edgbaston did Pakistan truly show up. The top order finally resisted. Razaullah, one of those late call-ups, lit the match with both ball and bat. He had already announced himself by removing Root in his first over in Test cricket earlier in the series. His counter-attack on Friday – audacious, brutal, utterly unfazed – was the kind of innings that lodges in memory.
He leaves as the brightest silver lining of a miserable tour.
Fleming’s in-tray: openers under the spotlight
New head coach Stephen Fleming arrives in the UK in the coming days with a notebook already filling up. Top of the list: England’s opening pair.
Duckett’s numbers tell a stark story. He owns England’s only century of the summer, but he has not passed 20 in five innings against Pakistan and averages 23 since the start of the Ashes. Gay, in his first Test summer, has three half-centuries but now sits with an average below 25 and a front pad that bowlers are clearly targeting.
On a summer where the ball has generally dominated the bat, there is mitigation. The conditions have been tough. Yet the sight of England 2-2 chasing 130 at home will linger in Fleming’s mind. One more high-class attack, one extra 100 runs on the board, and this might have been a very different story.
England’s resilience deserves credit. When Pakistan finally punched back, they held their nerve. They still closed out a series 3-0, still finished a turbulent season with a result that looks emphatic in print.
But the real examination lies ahead: South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia. Harder pitches, sharper attacks, longer days in the field. The white-ball squad, with McCullum back in charge and Kevin Pietersen drafted into the coaching staff, will take centre stage against Sri Lanka in Southampton on Tuesday.
The Test side, though, will know this: you don’t survive many winters abroad starting at 2-2 in chases like this.
