Rawalpindi 2022 deserves to be considered at the top of a triptych of thoroughly modern Test wins, writes Ben Gardner.
Once again, England have won the basically unwinnable. By the end of day two, Pakistan had 550 on the board, their opener had dislocated his thumb, and their stand-in captain had fallen for a duck. The pitch was flat, but they still needed 250 more to avoid the follow-on.
Fast forward two and a half days, and they’ve won by an innings. Pakistan’s is the first 500-plus total to end in such a defeat. Harry Brook is a triple centurion. Joe Root is England’s leading Test runscorer. And they had more than two sessions to spare.
Despite the time left, England had to get pretty much everything right to force victory. Had they scored slower, survival would have felt in reach. Instead, Pakistan, sun-fried and run-frazzled, crumbled on the fourth evening. It’s a thoroughly modern Test victory, of a vintage that is steadily gaining members, teams racing not just the opposition, but also the conditions and the clock in order to force victory. These are of a different sort to, say, England’s Hyderabad heist. Test cricket has witnessed second-innings counterattacks to overturn a deficit throughout its history. The sprint from the starting gun is a new phenomenon.
Multan stands out because of the magnitude. 823 is just so many runs, and to maintain an aggressive tempo for the length of time to put up such a total is astonishing. Add into that the inexperience of England’s attack, with the notoriously travel-shy Chris Woakes the only seamer to have played an away Test coming into the game, the injuries to the captain before the game and to Ben Duckett during it, and you can see why there’s a rush to include it top of the pile.
India’s victory over Kanpur should get its due as well. Rain washed out most of the first three days, Bangladesh beginning day four on 107-3 in the first innings of the game. By stumps they were 26-2 in the third, India having taken the last seven wickets for 126 before racking up 285 at over eight an over, a rate unmatched in Test history. Victory was wrapped up, again with time to spare.
At Rawalpindi in 2022, England didn’t go as big as they did in Multan, or score as quickly as India did in Kanpur, with 650 in 100 overs sitting squarely between the two. Pakistan crossed 500 in reply, before a thrash set up a declaration to set 343 to win. At 259-5 it looked as if Pakistan might ease home, before the reverse-swing of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson cut through the lower order. The margin of victory wasn’t as significant as in either of the other two games but it still deserves to sit top of the pile. Multan and Kanpur stand out for their execution, but in conception both presented a clear gameplan. Time had been taken out of the game, and would clearly be a factor, and so needed to be put back in. Both also ended easily, eventually, and so there was some leeway earlier in the game, even if it didn’t seem like it at first. Had India conceded a lead, they would still have backed themselves to bowl out Bangladesh and chase a reasonable target. Had England done the same, or only reached parity, the game may still have accelerated towards a conclusion, as is often the case on Pakistan’s pitches.
At Rawalpindi, England already had a template: Australia’s 1-0 series win in a three-match series earlier in the year, with Pat Cummins’ team viewing the tour almost as a 15-day Test. Grind down Pakistan a game at a time, ensure you don’t lose, and snatch victory when the opportunity presents itself. Instead, Ben Stokes’ side risked it all. Batting first, they had to assess conditions - including the light, which sucked time from the Test - and judge how long they would need to bowl before Pakistan had even batted once. Then they had to do the same again in the second innings, the declaration timed perfectly to keep Pakistan interested and leave enough runs and time to force victory.
Rawalpindi set its own template. Now it feels as if no total is too big, pitch too flat, or timing too tight for victory to be denied. The bore draw has had its time, and it died on a dead pitch in 2022.
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