England beat Pakistan by eight wickets for first home 3-0 sweep

England beat Pakistan by eight wickets at Edgbaston on Saturday to finish the series 3-0. The target was 130. Joe Root made 62 not out and Jordan Cox 59 not out. England got there in the 25th over on the fourth day. Saturday's reports described it as England's first home Test series whitewash of Pakistan.

The chase did not start well. Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay both fell in the opening over. AFP reported that Mohammad Abbas bowled both of them. Root walked in at nought for two and edged his first ball through the slips for four. He was later bowled off a Mohammad Ali no ball. Pakistan did not take another wicket.

England lose two in the first over

Root and Cox took the game away quietly. Root reached fifty from 57 balls with a cut. Cox followed soon after. It was his third half-century of the series. AFP reported that Root passed 1,000 Test runs at Edgbaston during the innings, and that the fifty was his 69th in Tests. Cox drove Mohammad Imran through the covers for the winning run.

Root led England through the series, having returned to the captaincy before it started. He finished it at the crease. Sky Sports had described him as England's returning Test captain in the build-up to the tour.

The bowling that set it up

The match was effectively decided on the first day. Pakistan were bowled out for 133. NewsBytes recorded figures of four for 42 to Josh Tongue, three for 25 to Jofra Archer and three for 15 to Ollie Robinson. It took 33.5 overs.

That summary gives Robinson 21 wickets for the series and Tongue 19 at 16.31. It also has Robinson reaching 100 Test wickets in the Edgbaston first innings. Pakistan's second innings was harder work. The ICC put Gus Atkinson at three for 109, Tongue at two for 106 and Dan Lawrence at two for 17.

Razaullah's 81 from 63 balls

Pakistan had been 318 for 8 in their second innings. Razaullah then hit 81 from 63 balls with nine sixes. He and Mohammad Abbas added 121 for the ninth wicket. Abbas made 42. Razaullah is 21. That stand is the reason England had to bat again at all.

NewsBytes called it the first stand of 100 or more for the ninth wicket or lower in England since 2014. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami made 111 at Nottingham that year. The debutant had also taken four wickets in England's first innings, Root among them. "I just had to bat, you are the ones who got to enjoy it," Razaullah said afterwards, in quotes carried by AFP.

Shan Masood made 95 and Babar Azam 76. Azan Awais added 59 and Saud Shakeel 29. Nobody reached a hundred. It was Pakistan's best batting of the tour and it still left England needing only 130.

The series in full

England won each of the three Tests, twice by heavy margins.

• First Test: England won by an innings and 103 runs
• Second Test: England won by 194 runs
• Third Test at Edgbaston: England won by eight wickets

At Edgbaston the pattern held until the fourth innings. England replied to 133 with 453, a lead of 320. Harry Brook made 75, Dan Lawrence 65 and Emilio Gay 60, per that summary. It also had Brook passing 1,000 career runs against Pakistan. Razaullah took four for 148. Pakistan's 449 second time round came too late to matter.

Pakistan have not won a Test in England since 2016, according to Daily Pakistan. They now leave England with three defeats from three matches.

Pakistan drop to ninth in the WTC table

The result leaves England sixth in the 2025-27 World Test Championship standings. Pakistan are ninth. Yardbarker's updated table puts Pakistan on 16.67 per cent and out of the running for the 2027 final, with Australia leading on 80.00 per cent. The same table has Australia at eight wins from 10 Tests.

England's own cycle has been uneven. That table credits them with seven wins and eight defeats from 16 Tests. LatestLY reported that the 3-0 win left England's position unchanged.