Pakistan vs England 2022-23

Test matches (3): Pakistan 0 (0pts), England 3 (36pts)

England's first Test tour of Pakistan for 17 years was a triumph - for the team, for their captain, Ben Stokes, and for the authorities who provided security that was tight, but never detracted from a generous welcome. Though troubled throughout by sickness, England produced groundbreaking cricket, thrillingly overturning the idea that attrition was the best route to victory on Pakistan's lifeless surfaces.

They raced along at 5.50 an over - a record for a Test series - stunning their opponents with controlled aggression and breathless strokeplay, and rewarding a small travelling contingent of supporters with unforgettable performances. Challenged to rethink how to play on their own pitches, Pakistan had no answer, and England became the first team to whitewash them 3-0 at home. In doing so, they won more Tests in three weeks than they had on all their eight previous visits.

England's batters scored six hundreds, four on the first day of the series alone, at Rawalpindi, where their 506 for four in 75 overs was the boldest of opening statements. One of the four centurions that day was Harry Brook, who scored two more before the series was out, and totalled 468 runs, the most by any England batter in a series in Pakistan. It suggested he could be a rock of the middle order for years to come.

Victory was achieved without major contributions - at least in terms of runs and wickets - from Joe Root or Stokes. Root was not at his best, though he too bought in to the new ways, twice taking guard left-handed in the First Test to disrupt the leg-spin of Zahid Mahmood. Stokes, meanwhile, could not have cared less that he took just one wicket or had a top score of 41. "The ambition to play entertaining cricket overrides any fear of failure," he said. "No one is worried about getting out. When that fear of failure isn't there, you're not tentative, and you make better decisions."

His captaincy galvanised everyone. As fast bowler Mark Wood put it: "I'd run through a brick wall for him." Stokes never let the game drift, constantly fiddling with his fields to manufacture opportunities in benign conditions, and surprising Pakistan with his inventiveness and gambler's instinct. "There's maverick in it, and genius in a lot of it," said England coach Brendon McCullum.

Having claimed he was willing to risk defeat in order to achieve victory, Stokes was as good as his word, setting Pakistan 343 in four sessions at Rawalpindi, where the surface was so flat it yielded 1,768 runs, a record for a five-day Test, and earned the venue's second ICC demerit point in nine months (later rescinded on appeal).

Next day, his fielders were crowding the bat as the sun dipped below the stands on the final afternoon, before Jack Leach clinched victory by dismissing Naseem Shah with minutes to spare. "That was one of the greatest exhibitions of Test captaincy I have ever seen," tweeted Nasser Hussain, the last English captain to enjoy a series win in Pakistan, 22 years earlier.

That Leach was even on the field was down to astute man-management. He had been one of several players to fall sick before the First Test when, amid talk of a four-day game, the virus threatened to delay the start. But Stokes cajoled him into playing, one of many shows of faith in his senior spinner. Keen to buttress his confidence, he often gave Leach the new ball and, even though his wickets cost 44 each, he made vital contributions, especially a burst of three for none to give England a crucial advantage in the Third Test at Karachi.

Pakistan found it impossible to second-guess their opponents. At Root's suggestion, Stokes himself opened the bowling on the fourth afternoon at Rawalpindi with Ollie Robinson, and unleashed a barrage of bouncers, quickly making inroads. James Anderson, England's greatest bowler, was held back for when the ball began to reverse-swing, and finished with four for 36.

On the fourth day at Multan, with Pakistan 290 for five, needing 65 to square the series, Stokes urged Wood to "Make a difference, change the game." And he did, blasting Pakistan out with raw pace, including two crucial strikes just before lunch: first he removed Mohammad Nawaz, then he earned a big hug from Stokes when he got rid of Saud Shakeel, adjudged caught down the leg side by keeper Ollie Pope - a marginal call by third umpire Joel Wilson.

Shakeel had a profitable first Test series, passing 50 four times - as did Babar Azam, who hit the seventh hundred of the game at Rawalpindi. The fifth had come from Abdullah Shafiq, and the sixth from his opening partner Imam-ul-Haq, who missed Karachi through injury. All too often, though, the demise of Babar triggered the demise of his team, and collapses cost them dear: five for nine on the last day at Rawalpindi, eight for 60 and five for 38 at Multan, then seven for 142 in the first innings at Karachi and seven for 52 in the second.

For the 37-year-old Azhar Ali, it was a series too far. He was dropped for the Second Test, and announced his retirement on the eve of the Third, not knowing if he would play. He did, but signed off with a four-ball duck. Of his 7,142 Test runs, which left him fifth on Pakistan's list, only 715 had been made in his home country because of the decade-long exile in the UAE following the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009.

A bit of kidology helped England, too. Before the Second Test, amid fears the game would be marred by fog and smog, Stokes said he would consider declaring without batting. The hypothetical scenarios grew more outlandish. Asked if he would tell Anderson, his No. 11, to go for the runs if England needed 20 off the last over, he unhesitatingly said: "Yes". According to Wood, the "alpha male" Stokes had matured, particularly in team talks: "I didn't think he had some of the words in his locker." Anderson topped the averages with eight wickets at 18 from two Tests - his first in Pakistan - and built a compelling partnership with Robinson, who made up for the absence of Stuart Broad on paternity leave.

Robinson played in all three - back-to-back - Tests, his fitness standing up like never before. He won the match award for his second-innings four for 50 at Rawalpindi, then at Multan competed with Wood and Anderson for the ball of the series, as they homed in on cracks in the pitch to mesmerising effect. Twice in that game Robinson bowled Babar - a first in Test cricket for Pakistan's captain. At Karachi, he defied sickness and diarrhoea to put in a typically probing new-ball spell. England's quicks outbowled Pakistan, who at Multan did not take a wicket with seam for the first time in a Test since 1987-88 - though they were not helped by the absence of injured left-armer Shaheen Shah Afridi.

But England's spinners were also important. Will Jacks took a six-for on debut at Rawalpindi, even if he faded. Leach reached 100 wickets at Multan, before putting in his best performance at Karachi, where he was partnered by Leicestershire's 18- year-old Rehan Ahmed, England's youngest Test cricketer. To pick a leg-spinner with three first-class games to his name was among the high points of their forward-thinking approach. That it felt inevitable by the final Test showed how McCullum and Stokes had changed the conservative mindset. Ahmed responded by becoming the youngest bowler of any nationality to take a five-for on debut.

The tour had started when the squad landed in Islamabad just hours after the culmination of a march on the capital by Pakistan's former Test captain Imran Khan, who had been ousted as prime minister in April, and supporters of his Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Imran had survived an assassination attempt only weeks earlier, and the political instability led to a review of security and a possible switch of the First Test to Karachi. It remained at Rawalpindi, a short drive from Islamabad, but the security was unstinting, with the authorities closing roads for the team convoys, which travelled in bullet-proof buses and were guarded by heavily armed police.

Arrangements were at their most stifling in Multan, which had not hosted a Test for 16 years. While supporters and the media could travel freely elsewhere, nervous security officials here insisted on a police escort whenever anyone left their hotel, even for a 100-yard stroll to the local restaurant. In the past, the half-dozen gunshots exchanged by rival gangs near the team hotel the day before the game might have ended the trip, but now they led to nothing more than a few arrests. From the start, though, the players could venture no further than the venues and back, and this closed environment allowed the sickness bug to spread. England had taken precautions, travelling for the first time with a chef: Omar Meziane was a popular tourist, and prepared meals at the grounds, as well as the hotels. No matter: most players still fell ill.

Trips here were once a step into the unknown for English cricketers, but the Pakistan Super League had changed that, and the series took place in a friendly atmosphere, with several of the players team-mates at franchise level. Brook knew the conditions from his PSL exposure, while Ben Duckett's dabs and reverse sweeps suited the lack of bounce. In his previous Test appearances, six years earlier, he had been told to block his way out of trouble against India's Ravichandran Ashwin - with little success. Now, he could express himself. "If I'm looking to survive, then I'm pretty useless," he said, having reached 50 four times in six innings, and averaged 71. His opening partnership with Zak Crawley showed promise, their styles complementing each other nicely: Crawley, upright and strong on the drive, the shorter Duckett ferocious on the cut and pull.

Pope continued to blossom at No. 3, and followed a century in the First Test with two fifties. With Ben Foakes ruled out initially by the virus, then by team selection, Pope also kept wicket in the first two games, taking the burden in his stride. When Foakes returned at Karachi, he made a stubborn 64, as he and Brook batted Pakistan out of the match. Brook possessed the shots of a multi-format player, and the temperament of a Test cricketer, learning from a rush of blood in Multan against Abrar Ahmed, when he fell for nine - his only dismissal below 87.

Abrar, who mixed leg-breaks with side-of-the-hand googlies, was Pakistan's most dangerous bowler, finishing with 17 wickets, including England's first seven on the opening day of his debut, at Multan. He should have played in the First Test, but Pakistan were cautious, picking the 34-year-old Zahid Mahmood, who was hammered, and seamer Mohammad Ali, who was no better than county standard. The reselection of both for the Second compounded the error. A fourth successive home defeat - after Australia's 1-0 win in March - and the humiliation of a whitewash precipitated change at the top. As England packed to go home, Ramiz Raja, the PCB chairman who had been appointed by Imran, his old captain, and had been a vocal critic of the pitches throughout the series, was removed from his post.

England, by contrast, had been popular from the moment Stokes announced he was donating his match fees - in all, close to £50,000 - to help victims of the Pakistan floods that had recently wrecked the lives of millions. The vibrancy of England's cricket only added to the lustre, with crowds filling the grounds at Rawalpindi and Multan - though not at Karachi, where shambolic ticketing arrangements, and the demands of everyday life in a bustling city, left the stands all but empty.

Above all, McCullum had imbued his team with a sense of adventure, despite insisting he did "bugger all" for his money. Nine wins out of ten - England's best sequence since 2004 - had been built on strong foundations laid by a coach and captain with a clear focus on what they wanted from their players. The result was intoxicating cricket - and one of their greatest results.