England became the first visiting team in Test history to whitewash Pakistan on their own conditions, completing an eight-wicket haul in Karachi to wrap up a memorable 3–0 victory.
The result means England have won nine Tests in 10 under Ben Stokes – a 180-degree turnaround after they won just one of their last 17 under Joe Root.
Resuming on the fourth morning at 112 for two chasing 167, they needed just 38 minutes to wrap up the win, with the two Bens – Duckett and Stokes – supplying the finishing touches.
Ben Stokes and a resurgent England side completed their 3-0 series whitewash of Pakistan
Stokes and Ben Duckett completed the job in under forty minutes to win the third Test
Duckett ended a superb series with an unbeaten 82 off just 78 balls, while Stokes – who survived a tough chance at deep midwicket against Abrar Ahmed on 22 – was unbeaten on 35.
The winning runs came when Duckett slapped Mohammad Wasim through the covers, and was immediately embraced by his captain.
England have made history here, and don’t they know it.
The last time Pakistan lost more than one Test in a home series was against India, beating them 2-1 in 2003-04. England had previously won just two of their 24 Tests in this country – and have now won more Tests in Pakistan (five) than they have lost (four).
Their nine Test wins in 2022 are also England’s second-highest tally, behind 11 in 2004. England also won nine Tests in 2010, though from 14 matches to the 16 they have played now year.
Whichever way you crunch the numbers, their latest series win – after beating New Zealand and South Africa last summer, and tying their series with India by winning the delayed fifth Test at Edgbaston – could be the their best yet.
A jubilant Stokes shook hands with the Pakistan umpires and players before departing
England arrived in Pakistan amid warnings that their style would not transfer easily to local pitches. The concern could not have been better placed.
On the first day in Rawalpindi – with the dressing-room still gripped by the game-threatening virus – they scored 506 for four, including four individual centurions.
After that, they barely turned around. Stokes’ fourth-day declaration in that game, setting Pakistan on a tempting 343 in four sessions, proved a masterstroke, and his fast bowlers – led by Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson – was very beautiful on the last day.
The quicks, now augmented by the inexhaustible Mark Wood, led the way to a dramatic 26-run win in Multan, before England’s spinners took over in Karachi, where 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed took a debut five- for with a leg-break and googlies.
Duckett was superb and ended a great series with an unbeaten 82 off just 78 balls
Whenever England find themselves in a tight spot, someone answers the call. However, few answered this more emphatically than Harry Brook, the 23-year-old Yorkshire batsman playing his first Test series.
He followed up 153 and 87 in Rawalpindi (off 181 balls) with 108 in Multan and 111 in Karachi.
The Pakistani bowling was a mixed bag, especially in the first Test, where they considered leaving out mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed, but that was to take nothing away from Brook’s early brilliance.
Others also rose to the occasion. Duckett, playing his first Test in six years, was the perfect foil to Zak Crawley, who got the whole show on the road by taking 14 from the first over of the series.
England posed for a picture of victory and it will go down as one of their great series wins
Ollie Pope, too, went above and beyond the call of duty, keeping wicket in the first two Tests, and – like Duckett – constantly counter-attacking with his sweeps and reverse sweeps.
In March, Australia came to Pakistan and won 1-0, an attritional victory that led to talk of England needing to prepare themselves for a ’15-day series’.
Stokes was having none of it, and began to apply the logic he had mastered over the summer in a new environment.
He has been superb here, ensuring that England’s first Test series with Pakistan in 17 years will be remembered not just for the result, but for the way it was achieved.
