EDGBASTON – England completed ruthless 3-0 Test series sweep over Pakistan, winning final Test by eight wickets at Edgbaston after surviving an early scare and chasing down 130 before lunch on Saturday.
Babar led squad came to Britain hoping to salvage some pride from the final Test. Instead, they leave with a clean sweep to their name, unfortunately, not the kind they were hoping for. The 8-wicket victory gave England their first home Test series whitewash against Pakistan and extended Pakistan’s wait for a Test victory in England to a decade. Their last win on English soil came in 2016.
England had already done most of the damage before arriving at Edgbaston, winning the opening Test by an innings and 103 runs and the second by 194 runs. The third match initially looked like another routine England demolition job. Then Pakistan finally remembered how to fight back.
Asked to bat first, Pakistan lasted just 33.5 overs before being dismissed for 133. Josh Tongue spearheaded England’s attack with 4-42, while Ollie Robinson and Jofra Archer claimed three wickets each.
England then proceeded to make Pakistan’s first innings look even worse, piling up 453 and taking a massive 320-run lead. Harry Brook led the scoring with 75, while Jamie Smith made 69, Dan Lawrence 65, Emilio Gay 60 and Robinson 50. At that point, an innings defeat appeared less like a possibility and more like a scheduled appointment. Pakistan, however, had other ideas.
The second innings began in familiar fashion for Pakistan, with Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique dismissed without scoring. But instead of collapsing completely, Pakistan finally produced some resistance. Azan Awais scored 59, while Shan Masood battled his way to 95, falling just five runs short of a deserved century.
Then Babar Azam added 76, giving Pakistan’s lower order something to work with. And that was when Razaullah decided the match needed a little chaos.
At just 21 years old, debutant Razaullah produced the sort of performance most players would happily take after an entire career. First, he claimed four wickets in England’s first innings, including the prized scalp of Joe Root. Then he picked up the bat and apparently decided that defending was optional.
Coming in at No. 9, Razaullah smashed 81 from only 63 balls, clearing the ropes nine times. His assault transformed Pakistan’s innings from a likely embarrassment into a genuine fight. He also shared a vital 121-run partnership with Mohammad Abbas, who chipped in with a career-best 42, including two sixes.
Pakistan eventually reached 449, forcing England to chase 130 and giving the visitors at least a sliver of hope.
Razaullah’s nine sixes equalled the record for most sixes by a debutant in a Test innings. His 81 also became the highest score by a player batting at No. 9 or lower on Test debut, according to the ICC.
For a brief moment, Pakistan looked dangerous. Briefly.
England’s chase began with precisely the sort of drama Pakistan needed. Experienced seamer Mohammad Abbas dismissed Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay for ducks in the opening over, leaving England 0-2 and suddenly giving Pakistan’s bowlers something to celebrate.
Joe Root and Jordan Cox, however, had clearly decided that the entertainment had gone far enough. The pair rebuilt the innings with a composed partnership, although Root survived a huge scare when he chopped Mohammad Ali onto his stumps. The dismissal was overturned because Ali had overstepped.
Root duly punished the reprieve. He brought up his 69th Test half-century and, in the process, reached 1,000 Test runs at Edgbaston. Cox soon joined him beyond the fifty mark, reaching his half-century with a boundary through deep midwicket off Saim Ayub. It was his third half-century of the home series and another milestone in his emerging Test career.
The finish was almost anticlimactic. With England needing only a handful of runs, Cox drove Mohammad Imran through the covers and took a single to complete the victory. Root finished unbeaten on 62 from 69 balls, while Cox remained 59 not out from 76 deliveries.
Abbas was Pakistan’s only successful bowler, claiming both wickets. The rest of the attack watched the chase slip away without adding another breakthrough.
England’s dominance across the series was emphatic. They won the first Test by an innings and 103 runs, the second by 194 runs and the finale by eight wickets. Pakistan’s batting problems were particularly glaring at the top. Their opening pair managed only 20 runs collectively across six innings, leaving the middle and lower order repeatedly asked to rescue the damage.
They rarely could. Yet amid the disappointment, Razaullah emerged as the unexpected headline-maker. Four wickets on debut. Joe Root among his victims. 81 off 63 balls. Nine sixes. A 121-run stand with Abbas. And a record-breaking performance for a player batting at No. 9.
