Due to security concerns, England had avoided visiting Pakistan since 2005, hence this Test series was their first trip there since 2005.
On Tuesday, England won the third and final Test against Pakistan by an eight-wicket margin, completing a 3-0 series sweep and giving England its first whitewash at home. England, having resumed at 112-2, chased down their small 167-run target in just 38 minutes, with Ben Duckett (82 runs) and Ben Stokes (35 runs) both remaining unbeaten. The first Test was played in Rawalpindi, where England won by 74 runs. The second was played in Multan, where England won by 26 runs. Since 2005, when England last visited Pakistan for a Test series, the country has been off-limits due to safety concerns.
England finished the fourth day on 170-2, thanks to Duckett’s 12th boundary off fast bowler Mohammad Wasim.
With the English skipper on 22 and only 19 runs needed to win, Agha Salman removed Stokes from the game by having him caught off spinner Abrar Ahmed.
England’s new, more relaxed style of Test cricket, called “Baseball” after coach Brendon McCullum’s nickname, has been validated with nine wins in their last ten matches.
In May, McCullum and Stokes took over a struggling team that had won only one of its previous seventeen Tests before that, including a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Australians in the Ashes.
England’s tour of Pakistan was full of intensity from the very first day when they scored 506-4 to break the record for the most team runs scored on the first day of a Test.
On that same day, four hitters (Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, and Duckett) set a new record by reaching triple digits.
Stokes was also courageous as a captain, challenging Pakistan to reach 343 runs at Rawalpindi before using unconventional fields to take wickets.
The loss of fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi before the series began with a knee injury further added to Pakistan’s woes.
Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah have been sidelined by fitness issues for the past two Tests.
However, Pakistan’s batting collapsed badly, with the team losing their last six wickets for 108 in Karachi’s first innings and their last seven wickets for 52 in the second.
Losing to Australia in Lahore in March was the first time Pakistan had ever lost four consecutive home Tests, and Tuesday’s loss made it five in a row.
