This was a summer when cricket could have faded into the background. Competing for column inches with the Olympics as well as twin European knock-outs – Brexit at the hands of the over-65s, and the Euros at the hands of Iceland – and with a schedule lacking the big names of Australia, India, or South Africa, the lasting memory of leather on willow in 2016 could easily have been this tweet.

Oh bloody hell, they play cricket as well pic.twitter.com/u5NjfGXVOm

— Matt Barker (@matthew_barker) June 27, 2016

Instead, Pakistan and England engaged in a closely fought Test series which will live long in the game’s consciousness. Both sides came into the series in some sort of form. England had lost just one Test series out of seven, beating the No.1 side in Test cricket, South Africa, away from home in the process. That loss, however, came against Pakistan, who came into the series ranked No.3 in the world and hoping to finish it quite a bit higher than that.

First Test, Lord’s, July 14-17, Pakistan won by 75 runs

Mohammad Amir’s return to Test cricket came at the same ground he’d deliberately over-stepped at, and his final wicket would put a heartwarming finish on an emotional game which threw up a number of defining performances.

He and fellow centurion Asad Shafiq, who’d looked the part all series without delivering, made England’s Moeen Ali-inspired 328 look miniscule by comparison, and another five-wicket haul for Man of the Series Yasir Shah gave Pakistan a token target and a share of the spoils.

The results aligned – Sri Lanka whitewashing Australia and West Indies holding India to a draw at Port of Spain – and Pakistan were installed as the No.1 Test side in the world, having not played a game at home for almost 10 years. After the push-ups, Pakistan’s hard work had paid off.