Razaullah Ignites Pakistan’s Edgbaston Revival
EDGBASTON – England arrived on Saturday expecting to sweep up the last Pakistan wickets and stroll to a three‑Test whitewash. Instead, they walked off under darkening skies having been thumped to all corners by a 21-year-old debutant who only got his first passport last week.
Pakistan, written off after two feeble defeats and a chaotic reshuffle, roared back from the brink to post 449, seize a lead of 129 and drag this third Test into a fourth day that almost nobody had pencilled in. England now need 130 on Sunday to complete the clean sweep. They will chase it with the memory of Razaullah Khan’s bat still ringing in their ears.
From Rabble to Resistance
This was not supposed to happen. Pakistan had been blown away at Leeds and Lord’s, never reaching 200, never lasting 50 overs, their first-innings 133 here reinforcing the impression of a side out of its depth and out of ideas. The Pakistan Cricket Board responded with panic and pruning: seven players sent home, the head coach sacked, three debutants thrown into the furnace.
England, 453 on the board and 320 ahead, looked done with the contest by Thursday night. Pakistan 0-2 in the second innings only deepened the sense of inevitability. An innings defeat, another procession, another post-mortem.
Instead, the tourists finally showed some backbone.
The pitch softened. The ball stopped misbehaving. England’s vaunted attack, so ruthless for two Tests, suddenly looked ragged. Joe Root’s field placings were picked apart as Pakistan’s batters, for the first time on this tour, stitched together proper partnerships.
By lunch, Pakistan had surged to 184-3, the fightback anchored by a 125-run stand between left-handers Shan Masood and Azan Awais. The pair nudged, drove and cut England out of their comfort zone. Awais, compact and busy, struck 10 fours in an 84-ball 59 before a feather behind, revealed by review, checked Pakistan’s charge.
Masood, all nimble footwork and crisp timing, survived a chance at point and raised a 50 from 81 balls. He seemed destined for a cathartic hundred until Dan Lawrence flung himself low in the slips and scooped up a brilliant ankle-high catch to give Gus Atkinson his first wicket of the match. Masood walked away on 95, five short, but the deficit was shrinking and England were working for every inch.
Babar’s Near-Miss and a Series Transformed
Babar Azam, under intense scrutiny and without a Test hundred in 20 matches, played with the authority of old. He threaded the gaps, rode the short ball and looked set to end that drought. England tried to ruffle him with a barrage of bumpers; on 69 they thought they had him, only for substitute fielder Theo Wylie to brush the boundary rope and turn a catch into six.
Babar pushed on to 76, only to fall just before tea, gloving Josh Tongue as Jordan Cox flung himself for an acrobatic take. Another near-miss, another almost-story. Yet by then, Pakistan had long since crossed 200, then 300, and the mood of the series had shifted.
Saud Shakeel added his own brand of irritation, repeatedly dropping the ball just beyond fielders as he passed 2,000 Test runs. On 29, though, he too succumbed to the short ball, fending a Jofra Archer bouncer and departing with Pakistan 306-6. That looked decisive. The last recognised batter gone, the tail exposed, England closing in.
Atkinson, quiet all series, suddenly found rhythm. He removed debutant Ghazi Ghori at 312, then Mohammad Imran at 318. Pakistan still trailed by two. The script appeared to be back on track.
Then Razaullah walked out and tore it to pieces.
Razaullah’s Fury
He arrived as a No.9 on debut. He left having tied a piece of history to his name.
Razaullah, who already owns a first-class century, swung with clarity, not recklessness. Nine times the ball sailed over the rope, matching Ben Stokes’ record for the most sixes in an innings in England, set during the 2023 Ashes at Lord’s. Every blow carried a message: this series was not over on England’s terms.
His first six pushed Pakistan into the lead. The next few turned a recovery into a rampage.
Gus Atkinson, briefly England’s spark, was suddenly the target. Razaullah launched three sixes in a single over off him, each one more audacious than the last. Archer, England’s enforcer, fared no better. Razaullah’s fifth six, off Archer, brought up a 43-ball fifty. Another off the same bowler took Pakistan to 400.
At the other end, Mohammad Abbas played the perfect foil. Traditionally a bowler who bats in whispers, he produced a career-best 42, laced with two sixes and five fours. Their ninth-wicket partnership, 121 from 123 balls, shredded England’s composure and rewrote the record books as the highest ninth-wicket stand against England since 1984.
Abbas departed to a standing ovation, a tailender transformed into a cult hero for an afternoon. The applause barely had time to fade before Razaullah, still blazing, followed him, stumped for 81 from 63 deliveries in the final over of the day. He too left to Edgbaston on its feet.
“The first time he’s been out for Pakistan ever, and absolutely lights up the show,” Ramiz Raja said on the BBC, capturing the sense of discovery. Michael Vaughan’s verdict was blunt: “They’ve unearthed a gem.”
England Rocked, Series Reframed
By stumps, the numbers told a story of defiance. Pakistan had piled on 397 runs in 84 overs across the day, fashioned their first two century stands of the tour and turned a 320-run deficit into a 129-run lead. The same batting unit that could not last 50 overs in two Tests had just bullied England’s attack for an entire day.
The conditions helped. The ball stopped jagging, the pitch eased, and the gloom offered no movement. Yet England’s bowlers also lost their discipline, Root’s captaincy came under scrutiny, and a series that had looked brutally one-sided suddenly felt more nuanced.
England will still back themselves to chase 130 on a docile surface and complete their first three-Test whitewash since their 2024 demolition of West Indies at this very ground. They should. But they will do it with a new wariness, knowing that a Pakistan side derided as soft-touch tourists has finally bared its teeth.
Pakistan, meanwhile, have already salvaged something more valuable than a single result: belief. In a week that began with sackings, recalls and a sense of drift, a young No.9 with a fresh passport walked out and swung his team into a different future.
On Sunday, England hunt a whitewash. Pakistan, emboldened at last, will chase something else entirely: proof that this wild, defiant day was not just a one-off roar in a losing tour, but the start of a new voice in their Test batting order.
