By the close at Edgbaston, Pakistan were staring at a number no international side wants attached to its name. Not a scoreline. A comparison.
Three Tests into this bruising series, Pakistan’s entire batting unit has scraped together 743 runs. Shubman Gill, on his own, made 754 in India’s five-Test epic in England last year. One man outscoring an entire team across a series is the kind of statistic that usually belongs in pub trivia, not in the middle of a live contest.
Yet here Pakistan are, 11 runs shy of that unwanted marker and sinking deeper into a crisis that no selection cull or coaching shake-up has yet managed to halt.
Turmoil off the field, chaos in the middle
The backdrop could hardly be more fraught. Consecutive defeats at Headingley and Lord’s triggered a ruthless response from the Pakistan Cricket Board. Seven players jettisoned from the squad. The coaching staff dismissed. A reset ordered mid-series, with new faces thrown into the furnace of an English summer.
At the toss, Babar Azam tried to project calm. Asked about steering Pakistan through such upheaval, he brushed it aside.
“Not difficult. Yes, after that we had a couple of changes, but I think a good opportunity to new boys, and yes we are trying to do our best in this match,” he said.
Within a session, those words felt painfully detached from reality.
Put in to bat on a surface offering just enough for England’s seamers, Pakistan unravelled again. The problems that haunted them at Headingley and Lord’s did not stay in Leeds or London. They travelled, loudly, to Birmingham.
Robinson reaches 100 as top order folds again
Ollie Robinson needed one wicket to reach a personal milestone. He got it with his first strike of the morning, trapping recalled opener Saim Ayub lbw for a duck. A landmark for the bowler, another early wound for Pakistan.
That set the tone. Jofra Archer, back in rhythm and bristling with pace, removed debutant Azan Awais. Abdullah Shafique then departed to Robinson, and the familiar pattern of a Pakistan scorecard in this series reappeared: early promise replaced by a grim procession.
Shan Masood, searching for fluency and authority, fell to another loose, cross-bat stroke, picked out at mid-wicket off Archer. If the intention was to counter-punch, the execution was miles off.
Josh Tongue then took over and ripped through the heart of the innings. He prised out Babar Azam, then knocked over debutants Ghazi Ghori and Imran Randhawa before lunch. New faces, same outcome. By the interval, Pakistan were not just in trouble; they were in familiar, suffocating trouble.
Razaullah Khan’s 11 after the break did little to shift the mood. The innings hung almost entirely on Saud Shakeel, who once again looked like the only Pakistan batter capable of absorbing pressure and returning it with interest.
Shakeel, coming off a defiant 97 in the Lord’s defeat, stitched together another fighting hand. His 43 was controlled, compact, and briefly hinted at respectability. Tongue snuffed that out with a sharp inswinger that crashed through him, ending Pakistan’s last serious resistance.
The numbers told the story with brutal clarity: Pakistan 133 all out. Archer 3 for 25. Robinson 3 for 15 from 11 miserly overs. Tongue 4 for 42. A home attack operating with clarity and purpose against a batting order that looks increasingly unsure of its own identity.
England tighten the screw
England did not have it all their own way in reply, but they did enough to turn a position of advantage into one of control.
Mohammad Ali gave Pakistan a flicker of hope, removing Ben Duckett for 11. Mohammad Abbas then nipped out Jordan Cox for four. Two early wickets, some movement under the clouds, and a chance – just a chance – for Pakistan’s bowlers to drag their side back into the contest.
That hope did not last long.
Emilio Gay and Harry Brook settled, then advanced. Both passed fifty, both punished anything loose, and both made sure England’s innings moved with a tempo Pakistan have not come close to matching in this series. By stumps, the hosts were 156 for 4, already 23 runs ahead despite Joe Root falling lbw yet again – the 10th time in 13 innings.
Root’s dismissal was a curiosity. Robinson’s numbers were a statement. His 102 Test wickets now come at an average of 19.1, the best among post-war bowlers with more than 100 dismissals. While Pakistan search for stability, England have a seamer operating at a level that stacks up against any era.
A statistic that stings
Across two heavy defeats and one incomplete Test, Pakistan’s batters have managed 743 runs. That total, stretched over multiple matches, multiple venues and a revolving door of personnel, now sits against the 754 Gill carved out alone in a single five-Test campaign.
Gill’s haul last year spoke of elite consistency, technical assurance and mental steel in English conditions. Pakistan’s tally this time speaks of the opposite: fragility, churn, and a collective failure to occupy the crease for any meaningful length of time.
It is not just a quirky comparison. It is a damning illustration of the gulf between what a top-order player at the peak of his powers can produce, and what a misfiring batting unit has delivered over three Tests.
As England press on at Edgbaston, Pakistan are not only fighting to stay alive in the match. They are battling a narrative that now has a number attached to it – 754 – and every run they fail to score only makes that number louder.
How they respond from here will say far more about the future of this Test side than any boardroom reshuffle ever could.
