England dominated a sorry-looking Pakistan yet again on day one of the third Test at Edgbaston, bowling the tourists out for 133 before closing on 156-4, with a 23-run lead.
Emilio Gay (60) and Harry Brook (52) each struck fifties in the final session to rescue England from 39-3 after their own top-order wobble, in which Joe Root was pinned lbw for a 10th time in 13 innings by Pakistan’s hugely-impressive debutant pacer Razaullah (2-42).
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Root had earlier opted to insert the visitors at the toss in overcast conditions, but it wasn’t long before his side were preparing to bat anyway, as Pakistan lasted just 33.5 overs – their shortest innings in a series full of disappointing batting displays.
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Seven wickets fell in a chaotic morning session which saw Ollie Robinson (3-15) claim his 100th in Test cricket, before the innings was wrapped up soon after lunch.
Josh Tongue finished with 4-42, dismantling the stumps of Pakistan captain Babar Azam (7), Mohammad Imran (5) and lone bright spark Saud Shakeel (43), while Jofra Archer proved potent once more, taking 3-25.
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The tourists failed to bat out a full 90 overs – the equivalent of a day’s play – across their two innings in either of the first two Tests, and they will struggle to break that trend barring a stunning turnaround this week.
Pakistan’s 194-run defeat at Lord’s, which saw them lose the series with a match to spare, prompted an unprecedented overhaul of their squad and coaching staff prior to the series finale in Birmingham.
Seven players were dropped from the squad altogether, with four changes made to their starting XI and three of the newcomers making their Test debut.
The only one with prior experience was opener Saim Ayub who, while no doubt grateful for the call-up, must have been wondering what he’d got himself into when trapped for a 10-ball duck by Robinson.
Robinson removed Abdullah Shafique (3) caught in the gully, the wicket sandwiched between a couple of freebies for Archer handed out by scrambled Pakistan batters – Azan Awais (9) and Shan Masood (5) both spooning simple catches to midwicket, the latter’s particularly galling, as the visitors slipped to 26-4.
Tongue then produced the prototypical fast bowler’s delivery, angling in, nipping away and knocking back the top of off stump to see off Babar, while he added debutants Ghazi Ghori (4) – lbw – and Imran – to a devastating yorker- prior to lunch.
Razaullah (11), much like he would do later with his bowling, caught the eye with a couple of hefty swings of the willow either side of lunch before nicking Robinson to Ben Duckett, who made amends for a couple of earlier drops in the slips.
Saud was the next to be castled by Tongue, before Mohammad Abbas (21) and Mohammad Ali (5no) hung around and showed a great deal more fight than some of their top-order team-mates to add 26 for the final wicket – the highest partnership of a miserable innings.
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