Razaullah Sparks Pakistan's Remarkable Comeback Against England
Cancel the tee time at The Belfry. Put Cadbury World on hold. The Bullring can wait.
Edgbaston has a new attraction – and his name is Razaullah.
On a day England expected to cruise towards a three-day win and a Saturday off, a 21-year-old Pakistan debutant with eight first-class games behind him ripped up the script, the field, and two of his own bats. By the close, “Razball” had forced everyone back for a fourth day that barely seemed possible when this Test began.
A whirlwind from number nine
Pakistan arrived at this match in turmoil and under fire, then folded for 133 on day one. England piled on 453 and, at 320 runs behind, the tourists looked destined for a slow, inevitable defeat. This felt like a series winding down, not one about to be detonated.
Enter a raw fast bowler, picked more for his pace than his batting, walking in at number nine with his side still miles adrift.
Two hours later, the entire tone of the series had changed.
Razaullah smashed 81 from 63 balls, an innings of such ferocity and abandon that it dragged Pakistan from resignation to relevance. He hit nine sixes – the joint-most in a Test innings in England, alongside Ben Stokes’ 155 against Australia in the 2023 Ashes – and as many as Sir Geoffrey Boycott managed across 108 Tests.
He did it with a swagger too. Three bats taken to the crease, two broken by the violence of his hitting. England’s plans, and perhaps their pride, splintered with them.
There were echoes of Shahid Afridi in the sheer audacity, shades of Saeed Anwar in the clean, flowing aggression. One moment he was a name barely noted on the team sheet; the next he was carving England’s attack to all corners, forcing fielders back to the rope and still clearing them.
Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja, watching on BBC Test Match Special, could barely contain his admiration.
“It’s the first time he’s been out there for Pakistan ever, and absolutely lights up the show. This is the attitude that was needed,” he said. “Someone with a strong body language and who believes in himself. They’ll want him playing all formats because he’s a natural in mind, body language and attitude. It was a tremendous fightback.”
Root out of answers
At the height of the onslaught, Joe Root looked less like a captain in control and more like a grandmaster suddenly unsure which piece to move. Short balls, full balls, changes of pace – nothing unsettled the newcomer.
Root pushed eight fielders to the boundary at one point. It barely registered. Razaullah kept swinging, kept connecting, kept dragging the game away from England’s grip. The arrogance of youth? Absolutely. And utterly compelling.
This was not a chancy slog. Pakistan, written off and expected to fold, batted with a freedom that had been missing all series. Razaullah simply took that freedom and set it on fire.
His partners played their part. Shan Masood produced a stoic 95, a captain’s innings in all but name, while Babar Azam, finally playing with something like the lightness that has so often defined him, added 76. Those runs gave Pakistan a platform.
Razaullah turned it into a statement.
Theatre to the last ball
Even his dismissal came wrapped in drama. Given out lbw to Dan Lawrence, he survived on review. Next ball he charged down the pitch, missed, and was stumped. The crowd loved it. So did the Pakistan supporters, who roared him from the field with a warmth usually reserved for veterans, not debutants.
The contrast with his likely reality just months ago is stark. In another timeline, he would be preparing for league cricket with Cleethorpes in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League, a promising quick enjoying a stint in England. Instead, a national training camp call-up in May rerouted his path – all the way to centre stage at Edgbaston.
Now he has given Pakistan something far more valuable than a counter-attacking 81. He has given them hope.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan summed it up bluntly.
“England are going to win this Test match, I’m sure,” he said. “But, Razaullah has given Pakistan cricket some hope. They’ve unearthed a gem and he will be a superstar for many years.”
Pakistan’s wild ride, England’s rude awakening
Pakistan cricket rarely travels in straight lines. It lurches. It soars. It collapses. In three days in Birmingham, the team has once again dragged its supporters from despair to belief.
From 133 all out and a fanbase braced for humiliation, to a position where they are not just alive but “in the black” and defending 129, with the faint outline of a famous victory on the horizon. No one, as Vaughan put it, thought this match would see a day four. Now, it feels like compulsory viewing.
England, for their part, will have questions to answer. Their tactics against Pakistan’s lower order unravelled. The barrage of short balls, the brief use of spin, the timing of the second new ball – all will come under scrutiny after a day in which control slipped away in a blur of green shirts and flying white balls.
“England will look back at a lot of the tactics and realise they got it wrong,” Vaughan added. “The short stuff, one over of spin, the second new-ball with the spinner. That day today will make the England team realise there is a long way to go to be world class.”
Bazball has lived on the edge since its inception, daring teams to match its audacity. At Edgbaston, for a dizzying afternoon, Pakistan did more than that. They answered with a phenomenon of their own.
Now, with 129 runs to defend and a new cult hero in their ranks, Pakistan walk into day four not as passengers in England’s procession, but as live contenders in a Test that suddenly feels like it belongs to Razaullah.
