The Cricket Briefing: England close in on a series clean sweep, but why can’t their batters convert?
If the weather holds, England will complete their 3-0 series win on Friday and can turn their attentions to the far sterner test that awaits in South Africa this winter.
Pakistan’s meagre challenge has been swept aside dismissively, maintaining the theme from recent weeks. The hosts may be struggling to register three-figure scores, but they still secured a first-innings lead of 320 in Birmingham and then set about making in-roads into demoralised opponents as rain and bad light closed in.
When the umpires called a premature halt to play, the tourists were still 268 runs adrift of making England bat again. On the second day at Edgbaston:
- Dan Lawrence (65), Jamie Smith (69) and Ollie Robinson (50) all scored half-centuries
- Razaullah Khan took 4-148 on debut as the hosts were dismissed for 453
- Pakistan, 320 runs behind, lost two wickets in Robinson’s first over
- Azan Awais and Shan Masood displayed some grit before the rain offered some respite.
Paul Newman and Ben Jones dissect the key talking points from a truncated second day at Edgbaston.
An English summer of shoddy conversion rates
It may be the pitches, modern stroke-play and dwindling concentration spans or, certainly in New Zealand’s case, the quality of the seam bowling. But 21 times an England batter has passed 50 in this summer’s two Test series, yet only once has any of them gone on to make a century.
Extraordinarily, never before in the history of English cricket have England failed to score fewer than two individual centuries in a six-Test summer. Their conversion rate of five per cent is the lowest ever for an England home summer of six or more Tests.
Ben Duckett remains England’s only centurion in the summer’s six Tests — his 113 coming in the last Test defeat against New Zealand at Trent Bridge that sparked the departure of captain Ben Stokes and, subsequently, coach Brendon McCullum. That is a reflection of a low-key, mainly low scoring and disappointing Test season and the dominance of ball over bat, with Test cricket now played largely in the margins at the start and end of summer.
Ben Duckett celebrates his century at Trent Bridge back in June – England’s only 100 of the Test summer (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
There is no doubt pitches have been highly testing for batting, with MCC forced into an investigation into the state of the Lord’s square after preparing an “unsatisfactory” surface against New Zealand and one that was not much better for the recent visit of Pakistan.
Conditions were at their best for batting in this final Test on a flat-looking Edgbaston pitch and against a crisis-ridden Pakistan attack, but even though England made 453, with no fewer than five batters reaching 50, none was able to take three-figure advantage.
That means those still looking to fully establish themselves in the England top seven will rue their failure to take a golden opportunity by reaching the magic three figures.
Emilio Gay had worked so hard to reach 60 on the first day under lights and with Pakistan gaining plenty of movement off the pitch, but he gave it away 25 minutes before the close and was unable to add a hundred to his two half-centuries against New Zealand.
The sun was out and both Pakistan and the pitch were extremely flat on the second morning but Brook ran himself out, and Lawrence missed out on the easiest chance he will have to reach a first Test century — he once threw it away on 91 against West Indies — also chopping on to a wide ball. He let out an agonised “no” upon hearing the death rattle.
An anguished Dan Lawrence chops on and misses out on a first Test century (Philip Brown/Getty Images)
Then Smith blew surely the last chance for an England batter to join Duckett in this year’s century club — it is difficult to believe England will have to bat again here — when he fell for 69 caught and bowled by the debutant Razaulluh.
Maybe Matt Fisher will feel the most hard done by of all the English non-centurions. The tailender was left ‘stranded’ on 50 not out when England were dismissed for 291 by New Zealand at the Oval. Who knows what might have been had his batting partners stuck around a while longer…
Paul Newman
How Jamie Smith made himself integral again
There wasn’t much for the Edgbaston crowd to get their teeth into on the second day of this one-sided Test. England stretched their lead to 320, with Brook, Lawrence and Smith all chipping in with half-centuries as they sped away from this hapless Pakistan side, for a third and final time this series.
It was Smith who drew the eye, skipping down the track to the spinners, and backing himself to clear the infield against the quicks. He eventually fell on 69, a leading edge snaffled by the bowler Razaullah. Unless England are forced to bat again, Smith ends the summer with 263 runs at an average just under 33. Useful, rather than emphatic.
Where Smith scored his runs at Edgbaston
After an injury to his left ring-finger, Smith was unable to keep in the second innings, forcing Jordan Cox into action as the backup.
Ordinarily, this might have sent tongues wagging about a potential route for Cox to stay in the XI once Jacob Bethell returns, but no. It’s illustrative that, despite these middling returns, Smith’s place is under little to no scrutiny, largely thanks to his enormous improvement behind the stumps.
His work with Sarah Taylor, England’s fielding coach, has expanded his glove-game significantly.
Last summer, Smith stood up to the stumps against pace 107 times, for the price of just one wicket. This summer, far more comfortable stepping up, Smith has done so just under 500 times, with 14 wickets falling while he is there. As Taylor told the Daily Telegraph, “The repetition that he’s putting in of actually doing it (standing up to the stumps), he’s getting better because he’s doing it more in matches”
The trade off in wicket-keeper selection was always clear for England. Either you go for a specialist keeper like Ben Foakes, whose shortcomings with the bat you accept in exchange for the extra dimension he gives you in the field, or you pick the best batter available who also keeps wicket.
Smith was far more than a novice gloveman on arrival into the England side, but he was firmly in the latter camp. The work with Taylor, and Smith’s own self-improvement, has meant that Root is now blessed with something of the best of both worlds — a good lower order batter, who can consistently impact matches with the gloves.
Ben Jones
Joe Root’s ruthless streak
Joe Root was adamant he would not look beyond this Test towards the winter’s enticing series in South Africa. Nothing would get in the way of his side completing a clean sweep against Pakistan.
It was a ruthless stance, made in Root’s media conference ahead of the final Test, and a contrast to that of his predecessor Ben Stokes and the Bazball approach two years ago. Back then, with England 2-0 up against Sri Lanka, they brought in the left-arm seamer Josh Hull very much on potential rather than anything he had achieved in the game.
It was a left-field Bazballian choice and one that backfired as Hull struggled and Sri Lanka gained a consolation victory. He has not been remotely near a Test place since.
Josh Hull took three wickets against Sri Lanka back in 2024 and has not been picked since (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Later that year England again clinched a series, this time against New Zealand, with one match to play and appeared to treat the ‘dead-rubber’ occasion more like a benefit match than a Test.
Nothing belied the belief that England under Stokes and McCullum, to coin Logan Roy’s phrase, “were not serious people” than a New Zealand victory by a thumping 423 runs.
Clearly, it is going to be different under Root, a returning captain who has not put a foot wrong since he was reappointed more because of a lack of feasible options than his own suitability for a second stint in charge — other than a rare shortage of runs.
Pakistan have been desperately poor in this low-key late summer series and have imploded here in miserably predictable fashion after their own board set them up to fail by undermining captain Babar Azam and handing him a seriously weakened team.
But England have done everything they had to do. They have not taken their foot off the accelerator at any point, and have earned themselves the emphatic series victory they so badly needed after the last vestiges of Bazball went up in flames in that 2-1 defeat by New Zealand earlier in the summer.
It must have been tempting for England to make a change or two to their bowling attack for this Test and perhaps have a look at Sam Cook to try to decide, once and for all, whether he has what it takes to be a Test level performer. Instead, Root picked the same team that won the first two matches in the belief they are building an attack to rival that which claimed the 2005 Ashes.
They have to give them as many opportunities as possible to gain experience together and prove they can emulate their predecessors when Australia arrive next summer.
Joe Root has ensured England have been focused on securing a 3-0 series clean sweep (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
The same attitude was prevalent in their batting when England took a rare chance to grind the opposition into the dust and earn a formidable lead of 320, adding 122 for their last three wickets with Robinson, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue all cashing in.
There was even a touch of ruthlessness when England took to the field again as Root put himself back in his old first-slip position in place of Ben Duckett, who dropped two chances in the first innings. He promptly took a catch in the first over.
Nothing emphasised England’s ruthlessness more than the remarkable Robinson, who continues to have one of the greatest comeback summers of them all by taking the wicket of Saim Ayub — called up from the Caribbean Premier League and asked to open the batting in these conditions — for a pair with the first ball of the innings.
He followed it with that of Abdullah Shafique with the fourth ball of his opening over. Robinson even seemed to consider giving Ayub a send-off, which would have been unkind more than ruthless, only to appear to think better of it.
Paul Newman
A shortened, spinless summer
It’s a summer that has had its excitements — largely off the field, but not entirely.
English fans may feel differently, but New Zealand’s win back in June was a generational achievement by an excellent team. Robinson’s return to Test cricket has been outstanding, and the emergence of an English pace quartet of genuine pedigree is cause for optimism.
Barring a remarkable rearguard action from the Pakistan tail, only one English summer since 1959 will have seen less Test cricket in terms of balls bowled. That one summer was 1999, when the arrival of the ODI World Cup limited the schedule to just four Tests; 2026 brings with it no such excuse for how little cricket we have seen.
Pakistan, 320 runs behind, lost two wickets in the first over of their second innings (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
As well as the batters — who have ranged from underwhelming to atrocious — the administrators have had their part to play.
At present, when neither India or Australia are touring, England’s home Test summer comprises twin three-Test series. It isn’t inherently a bad idea. Three-Test series are disproportionately better than two-Test series, and ensure that neither matchup feels like the lesser spectacle; the supporting act.
The problem with that though, is that neither series feels like the main event, and the summer can just pass itself by. A lot of album tracks, not a lot of singles.
It’s also lacked a bit of tactical texture: 89 per cent of the overs bowled in these two Test series have been from seamers. That’s the highest percentage for any English home summer of at least five matches where we have data.
We haven’t even had the variety of the occasional left-arm seamer to break things up – it’s been almost entirely a summer of right-arm seam bowling.
It has been one of the hottest years ever in this country, and yet none of England, New Zealand or Pakistan have leant into using spin as their primary weapon. Or, to be honest, as their secondary weapon.
The reasons aren’t hard to find. The Hundred occupied the central part of the summer when the heatwave was at its strongest, so its effect wasn’t as great as could have been.
Ali Usman’s 5-95 at Leeds was a rare example of a spinner prospering this summer, albeit he was sent home after the second Test (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
With the Tests being so short, there has been no requirement for spinners to take the workload of their pace bowling team-mates. Batters’ techniques have been so poor against the moving ball that varying the nature of your attack has been unnecessary. And so the cycle continues.
The brevity of the summer, combined with the lack of variety in the cricket, will see 2026 remembered as a season that showed, if you’re not careful, Test cricket can be a worryingly flat spectacle.
Ben Jones