Cancel the tee time at The Belfry. Put Cadbury World on hold. The Bullring can wait.
Edgbaston has a new attraction: Razaullah, and something the locals might soon be calling Razball.
On a day England expected to ease to a three-day win and enjoy a quiet Saturday, a 21-year-old Pakistan debutant with eight first-class matches behind him ripped up the script, the coaching manual and, for good measure, two of his own bats. His 81 from 63 balls at No. 9 did more than just extend the third Test into a fourth day. It jolted life back into a series that looked dead and buried and handed Pakistan cricket a fresh, raw symbol of hope.
A debut that detonated the day
Razaullah arrived with a reputation as a tearaway quick, likened to Waqar Younis for what he can do with the ball. England’s batters had spent the build-up talking about his pace. Their bowlers barely knew his name.
They do now.
What followed was two hours of bedlam. Pakistan, so timid earlier in the week, suddenly batted like a side unshackled. The deficit loomed, the situation screamed damage limitation, yet Razaullah strode out and treated it like a street game in Karachi.
He swung hard, often, and mostly clean. England’s seamers went from hunting wickets to hunting ideas. Joe Root, captaining a side that had steamrollered Pakistan for 133 on the first day, suddenly wore the look of a chess player who has lost track of the board.
He tried everything. At one point he posted eight men on the boundary. The message was clear: hit it past us if you dare. Razaullah did exactly that, again and again, swaggering at the crease, bat twirling, the arrogance of youth radiating from him.
There were echoes of Shahid Afridi in the violence of the hitting, a touch of Saeed Anwar in the audacity. He didn’t just clear the ropes; he shredded England’s plans. He took three bats out with him, and his striking was so ferocious that two of them didn’t survive the onslaught.
“This is the attitude that was needed,” said former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja on BBC Test Match Special, purring over a player who had never before represented Pakistan at this level. Raja praised the body language, the self-belief, the natural ease of a cricketer who looked born for the big stage. It felt less like a debut and more like an announcement.
Records, rubble and a rattled England
The numbers behind the chaos tell their own story. Razaullah’s nine sixes drew level with the most ever struck in a Test innings in England, matching Ben Stokes’ nine in that famous 155 against Australia at Headingley in 2023. He hit as many sixes in one afternoon as Sir Geoffrey Boycott managed in an entire 108-Test career.
Every blow chipped away at the sense of inevitability that had settled over the match. England, sitting on a towering 453, had seemed to be cruising towards a routine win, especially after Pakistan’s meek first-innings surrender. Many with Saturday tickets will have looked at the weather forecast and the scorecard and wondered if they’d see a ball bowled.
Instead, they were treated to theatre.
Razaullah’s dismissal only heightened the drama. Given a life when an lbw decision from Dan Lawrence was overturned, he immediately charged the very next ball, missed, and was stumped. Edgbaston roared as he walked off, the young Pakistani soaking in a standing ovation that felt less like applause for an innings and more like a welcome to international cricket.
He left with Pakistan still behind, but the mood of the match transformed.
Masood’s grit, Babar’s release, Pakistan’s revival
Razaullah was the firework, but the fuse had been laid earlier. Shan Masood anchored the innings with a stoic, admirable 95, a captain’s ally in every sense. He absorbed pressure, left well, and refused to gift his wicket away. Babar Azam, freed at last from some of the weight that has dragged him down in recent weeks, crafted 76 that oozed class and calm.
For the first time in this series, Pakistan’s batting carried a sense of freedom. Being so far behind may have helped. With expectations on the floor, they played as if the shackles had finally snapped. The result: England’s bowlers, so ruthless on day one, suddenly looked short of answers.
Michael Vaughan, watching from the commentary box, still expects England to close this out. “England are going to win this Test match, I’m sure,” he said. Yet even he acknowledged what Pakistan had unearthed: “Razaullah has given Pakistan cricket some hope. They’ve unearthed a gem and he will be a superstar for many years.”
That’s the kind of language usually reserved for seasoned prodigies, not a 21-year-old who was, until recently, lined up to play league cricket for Cleethorpes in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League. A national training camp call-up in May changed that path. Edgbaston may have changed his life.
England’s tactics under the microscope
While Pakistan celebrated their resurgence, England were left to pick through a day that exposed their flaws. Short-ball barrages when the pitch cried out for patience. Just a single over of spin in a long, bruising session. The second new ball handed to a spinner. A captain marooned between plans as the runs kept flowing.
“England will look back at a lot of the tactics and realise they got it wrong,” Vaughan admitted. The gulf between where this team wants to be and where it currently stands was laid bare by a Pakistan side that, on Wednesday, had looked in turmoil.
From 133 all out and a fanbase braced for embarrassment, Pakistan now stand with a lead and 129 runs to defend. It remains a long shot, but if they pull this off it would rank among their most famous Test victories.
This is Pakistan cricket in microcosm: despair to hope in three days flat, the emotional ringer cranked up to full. A team written off, a dressing room under scrutiny, and suddenly a kid with a wild eye and a faster bat drags them back into the contest.
Whatever happens on day four, England’s golfers and shoppers will have to wait. Edgbaston has unfinished business, and a new name on everyone’s lips.
