Root and Cox Lead England to 3-0 Series Victory Against Pakistan

England wobbled, briefly. Then Joe Root and Jordan Cox walked in, shut the doors on panic and walked their side to a ruthless 3-0 series win over Pakistan.

Chasing a modest 130 at Edgbaston, the hosts contrived to turn a routine pursuit into a minor crisis within the first six balls. By the time Mohammad Abbas finished the opening over, England were 2 for 2, the crowd stunned into silence and Pakistan suddenly alive to the possibility of a heist.

Ben Duckett lasted one ball, edging Abbas behind to the keeper. Four deliveries later, Emilio Gay was pinned leg-before, beaten on the crease and sent back. Two wickets, no runs, and a dressing room that had expected a stroll now staring at a genuine examination.

Pakistan, fuelled by the energy of debutant Razaullah’s counter-attacking heroics with the bat on the third evening, sensed something bigger. At 2 for 2, this was no longer a dead rubber finish to a dominant series; it looked like the start of an extraordinary comeback.

Then the tension flipped. Not with a roar, but with a misstep.

Razaullah, entrusted with the new ball after his batting exploits, leaked runs early despite England’s nerves, and Pakistan were forced into a swift change. Mohammad Ali was thrown the ball and, for a fleeting moment, he produced the delivery that could have split the game wide open: Root’s stumps rattled, the great man seemingly gone for a duck.

Edgbaston erupted. So did Ali. But the umpire’s arm went out horizontally, not vertically. No ball. Overstepped. The dismissal wiped away in an instant.

The punishment was immediate and brutal. Root, reprieved, drove the very next legal delivery to the rope, a statement stroke that carried far more weight than its four runs. Cox followed suit in the next over, threading his own boundary and beginning to settle into rhythm.

Pakistan’s grip loosened again when another chance went begging. Abbas, so sharp in that first over, drew a thick outside edge from Root. It flew at a comfortable height between first and second slip. Neither moved. No dive, no flinch, just a frozen moment that will sting in the video review.

England did not look back.

Once Root and Cox had seen off that early burst, the chase flattened out into something almost clinical. The target was small, the pitch true, and the lack of real scoreboard pressure meant they could strip the chase down to basics: leave well, punish width, run hard, and slowly drain Pakistan’s belief.

Root, ever the metronome in the middle order, eased his way into familiar territory. Singles turned into crisp drives, nudges into authoritative strokes. When he pierced the field again to move past fifty, he did more than steady England – he rewrote the record books, moving clear for the most half-centuries in Test cricket.

At the other end, Cox played with the hunger of a man who knows opportunities at this level are precious. He started watchfully, then expanded, picking gaps, rotating strike, and refusing to let the game drift. His own half-century underlined the composure of a player determined to belong at this level, not just visit it.

By the stroke of lunch, the job was done. England had romped home by eight wickets, the early chaos reduced to a footnote in a match – and series – they controlled for long stretches. Root and Cox walked off unbeaten, their unbroken century stand the defining image of the morning: two batters, one seasoned, one emerging, shutting down a contest that had threatened, briefly, to catch fire.

Pakistan will look back at that overstep from Mohammad Ali and the spilled slip chance off Abbas as the twin moments where a miracle slipped through their fingers. England, though, will remember Edgbaston for something else: a scare survived, a record broken, and a new partnership that might just shape the next phase of their Test batting.