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Mohammad Abbas had England nought for two inside the first over of the fourth morning at Edgbaston. Ben Duckett nicked off, Emilio Gay was trapped in front, and for about four minutes a 3-0 whitewash looked like it might turn into the best session of Pakistan’s summer. It did not. Joe Root and Jordan Cox added an unbroken 130 for the third wicket, England reached their target of 130 for the loss of those two wickets in 24.2 overs, and the series ended before lunch with an eight-wicket win and a clean sweep.
Two wickets in an over, then nothing at all
Abbas, who had bowled with more control than any Pakistan seamer across the three Tests, bookended the opening over with both England openers and finished with 2 for 27. England were momentarily vulnerable, and Pakistan had one more chance. Mohammad Ali bowled Root for 23, the ball chopped back onto the stumps as the England captain tried to force a length delivery through cover, only for the replay to show Ali had overstepped.
Root sent the next ball square of the wicket for four, repeated the shot in Ali’s following over, and the contest effectively closed there. He finished 62 not out; Cox made 59 not out and looked untroubled from early on. Pakistan had no scoreboard pressure to apply and, after the no-ball, no luck.
England’s innings in this match read 453 and 130 for 2; Pakistan’s 133 and 449. Dan Lawrence, who made 65 in the first innings and took 2 for 17 with his medium pace, was named player of the match.
Pakistan’s fightback arrived a day too late
The fourth day was brief because the third had been so strange. Bowled out for 133 in 33.5 overs on day one — Josh Tongue 4 for 42, Jofra Archer 3 for 25, Ollie Robinson 3 for 15 — Pakistan trailed by 320 and were batting to avoid a third consecutive heavy defeat. Shan Masood made 95, Babar Azam 76 and Azan Awais 59, but the innings that gave them a lead at all came from a 21-year-old debutant batting at No 9.
Razaullah, who had already taken 4 for 148 in England’s first innings, struck 81 from 63 balls with nine sixes, equalling Tim Southee’s record for the most sixes by a debutant in a Test innings. His 121-run ninth-wicket stand with Abbas, who made 42, dragged Pakistan from the brink of an innings defeat to a lead of 129. “I was just enjoying myself,” he said.
It was, in the end, worth 24.2 overs of resistance. That is the shape of Pakistan’s tour: individual innings and spells of real quality, no session-by-session control. They lost the first Test by an innings and 103 runs and the second by 194, then sent seven players home after Lord’s and replaced them with seven others, while head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant Umar Gul were dismissed. Three debutants were named for Edgbaston. One of them, Razaullah, was the outstanding Pakistan cricketer of the week.
A first at home, and a winter that gets harder
England have beaten Pakistan in home series repeatedly, but they had never whitewashed them here until now. For Root, in his second spell as Test captain after Ben Stokes’s retirement, it is a first series win as skipper since Sri Lanka in early 2021.
The caveats are obvious and England know them. Pakistan arrived in disarray, changed a third of their squad mid-tour, sacked their coaching staff and never once batted through a full day with authority. Winning 3-0 against that is what a good home side is supposed to do; it says more about England’s discipline — their seamers hit the same lengths for three matches — than about how they will fare on surfaces that offer less.
That examination comes quickly. England tour South Africa for three Tests in December and January, against an attack that will not gift them a 133 all out, and the Ashes follow the winter after. The questions that the Pakistan series could not answer are the ones that matter: whether Cox’s summer has made him a Test batter or a good player of tired bowling; whether Robinson’s recall holds up when conditions do not help him; whether Root, at 35, can keep both the captaincy and the batting average that has defined him.
The answers are three months away. Pakistan, meanwhile, leave England with one debutant’s 81 and little else to carry home.
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One note on framing: Pakistan were bowled out for 449 late on day three, so day four itself was only the 24.2-over chase — the piece covers it in full but leans on day-three context to fill a legitimate 600–800 words. I also left Ollie Robinson’s series aggregate out: sources disagree (21 wickets at 8.76 vs 23 at 8.35), and the match-innings figures are unambiguous.
Sources: [ESPNcricinfo match report](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/pakistan-tour-in-england-2026-1496563/england-vs-pakistan-3rd-test-1496584/match-report), [ESPNcricinfo scorecard](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/pakistan-tour-in-england-2026-1496563/england-vs-pakistan-3rd-test-1496584/full-scorecard), [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/13584761/england-clinch-test-series-sweep-of-pakistan-joe-root-and-jordan-cox-steer-hosts-to-eight-wicket-win-at-edgbaston), [Gulf News](https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/sport%2Fcricket%2Fali-seals-englands-crushing-win-over-pakistan-1.1875302).
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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