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Tempting as it is to consider the state of Pakistan’s Test team and shrug at England completing a breezy series victory with a match to spare, it was not entirely insignificant for Joe Root and his men given the backdrop of a chaotic summer.
Until Josh Tongue nicked off Mohammad Ali at 5.45pm on Sunday evening to claim this second Test by 194 runs, England had not won a series since late 2024 and for Root it was his first as captain for more than five years. To have struggled at home against a touring side in such obvious disarray itself would have been to practically invite the sky to fall in over Lord’s.
As it is, the management class that tried and failed to retain the status quo back in March have earned some breathing space before Stephen Fleming makes his belated start as Root’s head coach consigliere. There are tougher challenges to come – South Africa and Bangladesh away, a home Ashes next year – but the odd positive has still emerged from this disappointing mismatch in the interim.
Chief among them is an attack that can now claim to be first choice in conditions where seam – not least late-nipping wobble-seam – is in the ascendancy. Ollie Robinson and Jofra Archer had only ever played together at Sussex before this series. Some 24 wickets combined across four innings since has been a promising start for a new-ball pairing that blends guile at one end, pace at the other.
Pakistan certainly felt this at the start of a highly improbable run chase that, despite Saud Shakeel’s gusty but ultimately crestfallen 97, eventually led to them being bowled out for 194 inside 51 overs. As Mohammad Abbas sat in the away dressing room, flush with pride at getting his name on the Lord’s honours board with a bucket-list five-wicket haul, his top order colleagues rather wilted.
For the second time Imam-ul-Haq was absent with a calf injury, leaving nine wickets to take and no doubt furthering the criticism of him back home. And in the opener’s absence Robinson and Archer took just 43 balls to turn Pakistan’s already Rizla-thin hopes into dust by whipping out three men for just 14 runs.
The earlier success of Abbas on this nibbling surface suggested that Robinson would again be a handful and in his third over Azan Awais and Abdullah Shafique were dispatched. Awais may have been a tight lbw on umpire’s call but Shafique, bowled neck and crop by one that jagged away, could have no such complaints.
In came Babar Azam and what followed was not pretty as Archer bounced him out with a brutish bouncer that took the top edge, ballooned off the peak of the helmet, and looped into the cordon. It was the kind of dismissal that can send shockwaves through a team, not least when the captain is the man made to look so ungainly.
In that respect Pakistan responded well, with Saud and Shan Masood wearing blows to the shoulder and finger respectively while holding firm either side of lunch for a stand worth 97 runs in 23 overs. Saud in particular enjoyed the gaps in Root’s understandably attacking field, unfurling some eye-catching cover drives.
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And yet while Saud looked assured, the beam of the floodlights and the moody overheads meant it felt only a matter of time before another incision came. Root turned back to Robinson at 111 for three and saw his banker bullseye the pads of Masood, 27, and Mohammad Rizwan, one, with some silky late movement.
Robinson’s return to the side this summer after two years on the sidelines has been an unqualified success, bringing 23 wickets at eight runs apiece. The 32-year-old now sits on 99 in his Test career at 19.3, providing the latest rejoinder to Rob Key’s assertion that 76mph with the wicketkeeper stood up doesn’t cut it at Test level.
Although after Pakistan reached 140 for five at tea, it was the airspeed of Archer and Tongue that mopped up. Among them was Saud in heartbreaking fashion, pulling Tongue for two sixes and a four during an over of bumpers before picking out deep backward square leg. Live by the Saud, die by the Saud, and all that.
More to follow…
