Joe Root walked off Edgbaston with his bat raised, unbeaten on 62, the series sealed at 3-0, and England’s summer – somehow – looking far brighter than the chaos that framed it.
At the other end, Jordan Cox, just 23 and playing with the poise of a veteran, finished 59 not out. Together they dragged England out of a brief wobble and over the line against Pakistan, an eight‑wicket win that felt as much about control and composure as it did about runs.
This was not a routine clean sweep. It came at the end of a season that had threatened to unravel England’s red-ball set‑up.
From curfew breach to captaincy redux
The turmoil began long before the first ball of this series. Ben Stokes, the man England had publicly backed to carry on as captain with Brendon McCullum after the Ashes defeat in Australia, broke a team curfew on the New Zealand tour in June. He was left out for the second Test. Root, who had stepped away from the job in 2022, was asked to take the reins again, initially on a temporary basis.
The sequence was brutal. Stokes returned for one more Test, then retired from the format after the series loss to New Zealand. McCullum was sacked. Root, already the side’s batting anchor, was handed the captaincy full-time for a second spell.
Around all of that, England’s professionalism was under the microscope. Questions about standards. Questions about culture. Then came the off‑field incident involving Brydon Carse outside a nightclub in Derby, casting another shadow on the build-up to the second Test of this Pakistan series.
Root did not try to pretend the noise wasn’t there.
“In chaos you learn a lot about the group of players you have,” he said. It was a line that sounded less like a slogan and more like a man who had lived it.
Calm at the crease, calm in the dressing room
What has changed most since Root’s return is the temperature of the dressing room. A side previously accused of being loose and easily rattled has looked more measured, more adaptable.
On the field, that’s been obvious. Dan Lawrence, stepping in for Stokes, has looked at home. Cox has seized his chance. The four-man pace attack, so sharp for most of the series, only really lost their way against Pakistan’s lower order on Friday in Birmingham.
Off the field, Root has tried to set a different tone. Expectations have been nailed down. Roles have been clarified. Behaviour has been addressed as clearly as batting plans.
“There’s been a lot of chaos around this series before a ball was bowled,” Root 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.”
He did not shy away from the bar they had set, either.
“The start of the series we wanted 3-0 and we’ve been clinical enough to do that.”
Clinical is the right word. Pakistan had their moments, especially when England’s bowlers briefly lost their edge, but each time the home side found an answer. At Edgbaston, that answer was Root and Cox, a blend of class and calm that sucked the tension out of the final chase.
A work in progress with teeth
Root is not dressing this up as a finished masterpiece.
“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.”
You can see why former captain Michael Vaughan used almost exactly the same phrase – “work in progress” – to describe this side. But he also underlined the hard truth.
“We can’t judge this England team against Pakistan,” he said. “Let’s not get too excited but what you see is a huge amount of talent.
“You have Jordan Cox looking so calm, England’s greatest [Root] at number four, Harry Brook a generational talent, Dan Lawrence has fitted in lovely and Jamie Smith, whose keeping has been brilliant and batting has looked good.
“The bowling attack has everything.
“But they have not won a five-Test series since 2017. That is what you get judged on.”
There it is. The line in the sand.
For now, England have what they craved at the start of this series: 3-0, authority restored, a captain back in command, and a dressing room that looks more aligned than it has for years. The chaos has not vanished, but it no longer defines them.
The next time they walk into a five-Test slog, we find out whether this summer was a reset – or just a pause before the real examination begins.
