England Eye 3-0 Sweep as Pakistan Struggles at Edgbaston
The sun finally turned up at Edgbaston. Pakistan, once again, did not.
On a bright final morning in Birmingham, with the ball older and the pitch friendlier than at any point in the match, Shan Masood and Azan Awais walked out needing something close to a miracle. Pakistan were 52 for two, still 268 runs away from making England bat again. They had two wickets down and almost no realistic route back into the game. The numbers told their own story: Pakistan’s batters were averaging 15.90 runs per wicket in this series, their worst return against England over a three-Test campaign since Tony Lock and Jim Laker shredded New Zealand in 1958.
This has been that kind of tour.
Archer and Robinson tighten the noose
Jofra Archer, whose fourth over last night was cut short by rain, took the ball first up. No easing into the day, no loosener. His second delivery to Masood leapt and jagged, beating a tentative defensive push and setting the tone. Masood, though, fought. He drove Archer handsomely through mid-off for a couple, then threaded a classical boundary through the covers, only to be dragged back into the contest by two plays and misses and a thick inside edge that cannoned into his body and dropped just short of the bowler.
At the other end, Ollie Robinson went to work with the cold precision that has defined his summer. He began over the wicket to Azan Awais and immediately had him groping outside off. In the 14th over, Azan was beaten three times in one set, Robinson repeatedly kissing the edge without reward. It was a maiden that dripped with menace. Robinson then switched around the wicket, tightening the angle, forcing Azan to play more often and earlier than he wanted.
By the 16th over, the pressure started to show. Robinson stayed around the wicket and cramped Azan for room, drawing a series of hurried defensive shots. When the batter finally tried to break free with a pull, he missed completely. The ball climbed down the leg side, flew past him and thudded into the boundary boards for four byes, leaving Jordan Cox, standing up to the stumps, with no chance. The figures will stain Jamie Smith’s name in the scorebook, not Cox’s, but everyone at Edgbaston knew whose skill had earned the mistake.
Robinson ended that over with a vicious lifter from a length that smashed into Azan’s chest. It was the sort of ball that leaves a mark in more ways than one.
Archer matched his new-ball partner for hostility. In the 15th over, he mixed pace and length cleverly, drawing Masood into two more airy prods outside off, then tempting him into that sweet, flowing drive for four. The over finished with Masood trying to pull from too close to his body, the ball spitting up and thudding into his ribs before dropping short. England circled. Pakistan flinched, but survived.
By the 19th over, with the sun high and the ball losing some of its venom, the scoreboard finally began to move. Pakistan reached 67 for two, Azan on 32, Masood 29, nudging and working what they could. Azan pulled Robinson crisply in front of square for a couple, one of the few shots all morning that carried any sense of authority. Yet every over carried a question, every play-and-miss a reminder of how thin their margin for error had become.
England’s grip and Pakistan’s fatigue
All of this followed England’s brutal efficiency with the bat on day two. From 156 for four, they surged to 453 all out by tea, hammering home the gulf between the sides. It was a total built on a trio of nearly-innings: Harry Brook run out for 75, Dan Lawrence bowled off the inside edge for 65, and Jamie Smith dismissed for 69 after batting through the pain of a suspected broken finger. Three players, three squandered chances at a first or further Test hundred, but together they drove the game far beyond Pakistan’s reach.
Lawrence, who admitted he had felt “ready for a really big score” before chasing that wide ball and playing on, has now logged three half-centuries in four Test knocks this summer. His frustration at falling short again was obvious. So was the satisfaction of finally turning promise into something more substantial in an England shirt.
Behind them stands the figure who has defined this series with the ball. Robinson’s numbers are already the stuff of future fireside stories: 28 wickets at 7.75 apiece in this “Lohmannesque” summer. He took both Pakistan wickets late on day two, and every spell he has bowled has carried the air of inevitability that only the very best seamers ever truly possess.
A tour that can’t end quickly enough
Around all this, the mood has been unmistakable. One Pakistan fan wandered Edgbaston on day two with a small blackboard: “Free Imran Khan … and get him in the team,” he had written. He told a pair of police officers he wanted to report a crime – committed, he said, by the 11 players out on the field. They laughed. He didn’t look like he was joking.
Even their own supporters seem ready for this tour to be over. The players’ body language has reflected it: shoulders slumped, eyes searching the outfield rather than the bowler’s hand, batters walking out knowing that one mistake, one good ball, will probably be the end.
The weather has toyed with them, too. When England batted, the ground basked in bright sunshine. When Pakistan began their second innings, the light dimmed, heavy grey cloud rolled in from the south-west, and the floodlights clicked on. The artificial glare only sharpened the outlines of Archer and Robinson charging in with a new ball. The forecast for this final day, though, was kinder: blue sky, a full day’s play, and all the time England need to finish the job and begin their end-of-series celebrations.
Beyond Edgbaston
Away from the main event, English cricket hummed along. At Trent Bridge, Olly Stone bulldozed Hampshire in the County Championship, another fast bowler reminding selectors of his existence on a day when England, unusually, have been able to name an unchanged XI for a full three-match series. No injuries, no rotation, no tinkering. Stability has its own power.
At Lord’s, state-school cricket finally had its long-awaited day. Four schools – Altrincham grammar school, John Hampden grammar school, Penistone grammar school and Chelmsford County high school – played for the Knight-Stokes Cup in front of the Pavilion and Father Time, with video messages from Heather Knight and Ben Stokes and full use of the dressing rooms. On a ground that has already staged men’s and women’s Tests, the Women’s T20 World Cup final and the Hundred finals this summer, it felt like another small but meaningful shift in who gets to dream on the game’s grandest stages.
The game’s politics lurk in the background too. The absence of an Ashes Test in the north of England next summer stems from a legal battle after the 2023 venues were awarded. Hampshire, overlooked in favour of Headingley, challenged the England and Wales Cricket Board and eventually received around £1m in damages. The financial and geographical map of English cricket is being redrawn in boardrooms as much as in dressing rooms.
One last push
For now, though, all eyes remain on Edgbaston, where Joe Root’s side stand eight wickets from a 3-0 sweep. Questions about Root’s own form have begun to bubble in some corners – patterns of dismissal, the sense of a great player searching for rhythm – but those concerns can wait for South Africa and Australia, when the keeper will not be standing up and the scrutiny will be even harsher.
This feels like the last day of term. The series is already decided, the result of Pakistan’s opening-day collapse and England’s ruthless response. The crowd will drift in, some in fancy dress, some with one eye on the bar and another on the middle, expecting the home side to finish what they started.
Pakistan, 268 runs from making England bat again, are clinging on with Azan and Masood, both in the 20s and both battling time, skill and the weight of the entire tour. England’s seamers are hunting the edge, the sun is out, and the end is coming.
The only real question now is not whether England win, but how quickly – and how much deeper this bruising series will cut into Pakistan’s confidence by the time the final wicket falls.
