EDGBASTON – England arrived on Saturday expecting to sweep Pakistan aside before tea, pocket a 3–0 whitewash and tick off another routine home series. Instead, Edgbaston witnessed a 21-year-old debutant at No. 9 swing so hard at the script that it flew clear over the stands.
Pakistan, written off after two feeble Tests and a shambolic first innings in Birmingham, ransacked 449 to seize a lead of 129 and drag this third and final Test into a fourth day few had even bothered to imagine. England now need 130 on Sunday to complete a first three-Test whitewash since their 2024 demolition of West Indies on this ground. They will have to work for it.
From crisis to counter-attack
The context made Pakistan’s revival almost surreal. Blown away in Leeds and at Lord’s, they had failed to reach 200 or survive 50 overs in an innings. The Pakistan Cricket Board responded with the panic button: seven players sent home, the head coach sacked, three debutants thrown into the fire. The new-look side promptly folded for 133 in the first innings. England’s 453 reply, a lead of 320, felt terminal.
By Thursday evening, Pakistan were 0–2 and seemingly heading for another humiliation. What followed across Friday was a slow, stubborn, then spectacular refusal to accept that fate.
The pitch eased. The ball stopped misbehaving. England’s lines frayed. Joe Root’s captaincy came under the microscope for the first time all series. Pakistan, for the first time on tour, batted like a Test side with a point to prove.
They moved past 200 after lunch, 300 after tea, and wiped out the 320-run deficit about 40 minutes later. By stumps they had scored 397 runs in 84 overs on the day, with their first two century stands of the series stitched into the scorebook.
Top order finally stands tall
At 184–3 by lunch, Pakistan were unrecognisable from the timid outfit of the first two Tests. Left-handers Shan Masood and Azan Awais put on 125, a partnership built on timing rather than brute force.
Awais, opening under clouds and scrutiny, played with crisp authority. He reached 59 from 84 balls, hitting 10 fours, before a feather behind exposed by England’s review ended his stay. It was a small innings in the bigger picture, but a giant one for a side that had forgotten what control looked like.
Masood went further. He moved his feet, drove through the covers, and forced England’s seamers to adjust rather than dictate. He survived a chance at point before reaching a 50 from 81 balls, then inched towards a statement hundred. On 95, with the milestone in sight, he nicked Gus Atkinson and Dan Lawrence flung himself low in the slips, clutching a superb ankle-high catch. Atkinson finally had his first wicket of the match; England had prised open a door.
Babar Azam tried to slam it shut again. The captain, without a Test century in 20 matches, looked in the mood to end that drought. He drove fluently, rode the bounce, and ticked along with quiet authority. England turned to the short ball, setting him up with bumpers. On 69, he was caught, only for substitute fielder Theo Wylie to brush the boundary rope and hand Babar a reprieve.
The escape didn’t blossom into three figures. Just before tea, Josh Tongue drew the error and Jordan Cox, acrobatic behind the stumps, completed the dismissal. Babar walked off for 76, another innings that promised more but still carried heavy value.
Saud Shakeel added his own brand of irritation for England’s attack, repeatedly dropping the ball just beyond the reach of fielders and easing past 2,000 Test runs. On 29, he too fell to the short ball, fending at a Jofra Archer bouncer and departing as Pakistan’s last recognised batter with the score 306–6.
At that point, England expected the tail to fold and the series to fall neatly into line. Atkinson, who had only one wicket in the entire series before this innings, knocked over debutant Ghazi Ghori at 312 and Mohammad Imran at 318. Pakistan were still two runs short of making England bat again.
Then Razaullah Khan walked in and tore the day apart.
A debut that shook Edgbaston
Razaullah arrived in this side via chaos. Only last week he was one of the emergency call-ups, a young player with a first-class hundred and, remarkably, only just in possession of his first passport. On Saturday, he played like he had been waiting his whole life for this.
He started by doing the simple thing Pakistan had lacked all tour: he just batted. Then he began to hit. Hard.
His first six took Pakistan into the lead. From there, the hitting turned savage. He launched three sixes in a single over off Atkinson, each one dragging the crowd deeper into disbelief. When he clubbed Archer for his fifth six, he reached a 43-ball fifty. The next blow off Archer carried Pakistan to 400.
By the time he was done, Razaullah had hammered nine sixes, equalling the record for most in a Test innings in England, set by Ben Stokes during the 2023 Ashes at Lord’s. This was not slogging at the end of a lost cause. It was calculated, fearless aggression from a player who looked entirely at home on the biggest stage.
“I just had to bat. You were the ones who enjoyed it,” he told Sky Sports in translated comments, explaining that he aimed to take the innings “long and deep” and had simply gone after balls “in the slot.” There was, he said, “no point” at which he felt scared. It showed.
At the other end, Mohammad Abbas played the perfect foil. A bowler by trade, he produced a career-best 42, peppered with two sixes and five fours. Their ninth-wicket stand surged to 121 from 123 balls, the highest for that wicket against England since 1984. Every boundary felt like another slap to a home attack that had expected a procession.
Abbas eventually fell to a standing ovation, his job emphatically done. Razaullah followed soon after, stumped for 81 from 63 balls in the final over of the day, leaving to the same roar. The first time he has ever been dismissed in Pakistan colours, and he left Edgbaston lit up.
“They’ve unearthed a gem,” former England captain Michael Vaughan told the BBC. Ramiz Raja, watching a player from his own cricketing culture tear into England, praised the “strong body language” and self-belief and predicted calls for Razaullah to play all formats.
England jolted, series re-ignited
By the close, England’s earlier dominance in this series felt distant. Their bowlers had finally toiled. The pitch had flattened, yes, but the lines and plans had frayed. Root’s field settings and use of his attack were openly questioned. A Pakistan side that had been humbled for two Tests had finally punched back.
England still hold the advantage. They need only 130 runs on a surface that has lost much of its menace. A composed top order should finish the job and complete the whitewash.
But the psychological equation has shifted. Pakistan, humiliated and overhauled mid-series, have discovered resistance, runs and a new cult hero in one wild afternoon. England, cruising towards a clean sweep, suddenly face a chase with pressure attached and a crowd that has tasted drama.
Sunday will reveal whether Razaullah’s debut onslaught was a glorious twist in a lost cause, or the moment this series remembered how to breathe.
