Tempting as it is to wince at the state of Pakistan’s Test team, England’s completion of a breezy series victory with a match to spare was not entirely insignificant for Joe Root and his men given the backdrop of their chaotic summer.
Until Josh Tongue finally nicked off Mohammad Ali at 5.45pm on Sunday to claim this second Test by a yawning margin of 194 runs, England had not won a series since late 2024. For Root it was his first as Test captain for more than five years. To have struggled at home against a touring side in such obvious disarray itself would have been practically to 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 ahead – 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. Taking 24 wickets combined across four innings since has been a promising start for a new-ball pairing that blends guile at one end with pace at the other.
Pakistan rather spluttered on this combination at the start of a highly improbable run chase that, despite Saud Shakeel’s gutsy but ultimately crestfallen 97, eventually left them skittled for 194 inside 51 overs. As Mohammad Abbas sat in the away dressing room, flush with pride at getting on the Lord’s honours board with a bucket-list five-wicket haul, his top order colleagues soon joined him.
For the second time in the match Imam-ul-Haq was absent with a calf injury, leaving nine wickets to claim and no doubt furthering the criticism of the opener back home. In his absence, Robinson and Archer took just 43 balls to rip up Pakistan’s already Rizla-thin hopes by whipping out three for just 14 runs.
The earlier success of Abbas on this nibbling surface suggested Robinson would again be a handful and in just his third over, Jamie Smith having stepped up to the stumps almost immediately, Azan Awais and Abdullah Shafique were duly 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 ball 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.
Yet while Saud looked assured en route to a 54-ball half-century, 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 swiftly bullseye the pads of Masood for 27 and Mohammad Rizwan for one.
Robinson’s return after two years in the wilderness has been an unqualified success, bringing 23 wickets at eight runs apiece – and, after figures of four for 24 to finish with eight in the match, a third successive bottle of champagne with it.
The 32-year-old, no different to his previous incarnation save for the No 1 he now sports on the back of his shirt, now sits on 99 Test wickets at 19.3. Plenty has been in Robinson’s favour but it has still been 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.
The only real jeopardy beyond Saud’s attempt to join Abbas on the honours board was whether this rain-affected match might tip into a fifth day. But unlike Durham 24 hours earlier – denied another Saturday night on the pop when bad light paused their match against Gloucestershire with four to win – it did not come to pass.
With nine days until the third Test at Edgbaston, England could in theory knock the top off a couple of cold ones with relative impunity. But after the needless distractions in the build-up to this Test match – ie the footage of Brydon Carse in handcuffs – one suspects Root will have been keen to keep things light.
Nevertheless, at the end of a summer that has been messier than a teenager’s floordrobe, Root could reflect on another small step in the right direction.
