In the third and final test on Thursday, England faltered to 110-5 as Pakistan’s spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali stifled their aggression on a sluggish, dry pitch.
On a variable-bouncy ground that was dried with the aid of industrial-sized fans and external heaters to counter England’s “Bazball” aggressive hitting, off-spinner Khan got 3-55 and left-arm spinner Ali grabbed 2-53 bowled unaltered in the first session.
Before lunch, the remaining batters found it difficult to handle both spinners on a challenging dry surface, with just the opening pair of Ben Duckett (52) and Zak Crawley (29) reaching double figures.
In a session where both Pakistani spinners struck the ideal spots right away, captain Ben Stokes was undefeated at six and Jamie Smith was not out at five.
Stokes chose to bat after winning England’s opening toss in the previous eight test matches, but Pakistan immediately used spinners from both ends for the first time in a home test match. The two slow bowlers shared 30 overs during the session.
After getting the better of both spinners for the first four overs, Duckett and Crawley used their sweep and reverse sweeps to reach a half-century stand inside the dozen overs before England lost wickets in quick succession.
Before Khan nailed Ollie Pope (3) and Joe Root (5) leg before wicket in his next overs, Ali enticed Crawley to drive on the offside, but the ball went to backward point.
Shortly after Duckett reached his half-century, Ali was unable to make a hard return catch, but the left-hander was leg before wicket on the back foot of a delivery that didn’t reach ankle height in the same over.
England lost to 98-5 on a track designed for spinners when Harry Brook (5) pulled his sweep stroke against Khan back onto his stumps around his legs.
England has decided to add Rehan Ahmed as a third specialist spinner in addition to left-arm spinner Jack Leach and off-spinner Shoaib Bashir because of the anticipated sluggish wicket.
Pakistan won its first home test since 2021 and leveled the series 1-1, and England made two changes from the team that lost the second test by 152 runs on a recycled surface in Multan, including Ahmed, who hasn’t played for his country since February.
While pace bowler Brydon Carse was rested and Ahmed took the place of fast bowler Matthew Potts, Gus Atkinson made a comeback after playing in England’s historic innings and 47-run victory in the first test.
After losing six straight games since being promoted to red-ball captain, Pakistan kept the same starting lineup, which gave captain Shan Masood his first victory. Pakistan kept leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood, who bowled just six overs in the second test, while Khan and Ali took all 20 wickets to destroy the England hitters.
