Since the historic 3-0 whitewash of Pakistan in late 2022, England have been struggling, failing to win series against Australia, India, and New Zealand. Though these were tough assignments, England’s “revolutionary” approach had been supposed to lead them through; the reality saw Bazball blamed for many of the defeats, with the batters being accused of being overly cavalier, and throwing their wickets away. Joe Root and Harry Brook were two who came under pressure in particular, following Root’s use of the reverse-scoop to Bumrah, and Brook’s comments to the tune of, “who cares?” after the most recent ODIs. This series was therefore billed as something approaching make-or-break, though this does feel distinctly unfair on McCullum and the team.
England were dealt several pre-match setbacks, both of their own making and not, with their captain Ben Stokes out through injury, their bowling consultant (and until a few months ago, their premier seam bowler), James Anderson, playing in a golf tournament in Scotland, and therefore missing the first day, and most importantly, a complete changeover of the bowling attack that managed the impressive feat of taking 60 wickets in the last Pakistan series, and these challenges appeared to have taken their toll early on; Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood both brought up their centuries on the first day, seeing Pakistan finish on 328/4. On the second day, Salman Agha scored Pakistan’s third century of the innings, leaving them to finish on a huge 556 all out. England, having lost Ben Duckett to injury in taking the last wicket, sent out Zak Crawley and stand-in captain Ollie Pope to see out the final twenty overs of the match. Eight balls later, Joe Root was jogging out to the middle, having seen the skipper pull a ball to Aamer Jamal at mid-wicket for a second-ball duck. Come the close of play, Crawley had brought up his fifty, and England were 96/1, most likely behind the game.
At this point, the pressure was on for England to respond, and respond they did. Crawley added fourteen to his overnight score, and Duckett, with a dislocated thumb, came out for a blazing 84. His departure brought Harry Brook to the crease, with Root on 80-odd, playing sublimely. Once the two Yorkshiremen were brought together, they did not look back. By the close of play on day three, some fifty overs since they came together, both had brought up their centuries, Root on 176 and Brook on 141. The pitch, which had so far offered so little help for the bowlers that calling it a road seemed insufficient, continued with its placidity, and both Root and Brook were able to bring up their own personal highest scores, Root finally falling for 262 (at the time of his dismissal, six overs after lunch on the fourth day of the match, Root had spent a total of eight balls off the pitch). Brook, on the other hand, became just the 28th man to bring up a triple century in the history of Test cricket, on his way to a brilliant 317. England continued with the attack, finishing on 823/7d from 150 overs, having scored at a simply ridiculous run rate of 5.5 an over. At this point, the pitch decided to wake up, much to Pakistan’s chagrin.
On the very first ball of Pakistan’s innings, Chris Woakes snuck a ball past Shafique, sending his off stump cartwheeling. Unlike Pope’s early dismissal, however, this was a sign of things to come. Shan Masood saw two chances dropped, first by Woakes off Atkinson and then by Atkinson off Woakes, before chipping the ball straight into the hands of Crawley. Babar Azam never got going and quickly departed, nicking Atkinson behind into the gloves of Smith. The next ball saw a contender for the worst shot in the history of cricket, as Ayub (the only Pakistani batter to get a start) lobbed the ball to Duckett to leave Pakistan 41-4 on a pitch England had been 779-4 on earlier that day. Agha and Jamal provided some brief resistance, taking the match to the fifth day, but Agha fell after making his fifty, and though Jamal managed to get to his fifty, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah did not stick around, giving England the match.
This was a stunning win, and that is backed up by the statistics. Having passed Sir Alistair Cook for the most Test centuries for England during the summer, Root needed only 71 runs to surpass his total as England’s all-time top run scorer. This he managed with ease, putting himself now as the fifth highest scoring batter in Tests of all-time. Less than a thousand behind Ponting in second, it is surely only a matter of time before he stands with only Tendulkar as his cumulative peer. Brook, meanwhile, became only the sixth Englishman to reach the landmark of a treble, and, until he top-edged a sweep whilst looking to accelerate the scoring, seemed to be in with a real shout of giving Brian Lara’s 400* a challenge. This was also the second-fastest triple century scored ever, eclipsed only by Sehwag’s effort in Chennai, that came at over a run-a-ball. Together, the partnership of Root and Brook totalled 454 runs, the highest ever for England, and the final total of 823 comes in as the fourth-highest of all time, with the distinction of being scored at a much quicker pace. For Pakistan, however, the statistics are less rosy. Six of their bowlers went for over a hundred runs, and the opening partnership has now set the record for the most consecutive single-figure partnerships.
All in all, this was an awe-inspiring reaffirmation of England’s commitment to playing attacking, exciting, result-making cricket, and I will leave you with my favourite stat of all. England, under Brendan McCullum, have conceded 500 runs three times. They have won all three matches.
“England captain Joe Root – all alone in the world” by Ben Sutherland is licensed under CC BY 2.0.