England beat Pakistan after early scare: third men’s cricket Test, day four – as it happened

After an early scare, Joe Root and Jordan Cox usher England to victory and a 3-0 clean sweep of Pakistan

Razaullah’s agent is giving it some welly on X – apparently his phone is ringing red. Razaullah was due to play for Cleethorpes in the Yorkshire Southern Premier League before:

“@TheRealPCBMedia come calling - sort his Passport out, and wing him over for @Edgbaston. He’s now made his mark. Franchises already showing interest. Our phones have blown up. Watch this space!”

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Is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a post-Test cricketer – or could he revolutionise the format? | Jonathan Liew

The 15-year-old is tailor-made for short-form cricket, but he may just have the power to reimagine red-ball batting

The ball is short outside off. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi goes to pull it, hoiks it high to deep midwicket, is out for 44 off 37 balls. Almost immediately, a portion of the 12,000 fans who have risen at dawn to queue outside the Chepauk Stadium for free tickets begin to vacate their seats. The Duleep Trophy final in Chennai between East Zone and South Zone is scheduled for five days and has been going for barely an hour. But for some, the show is already over.

Of course, Sooryavanshi is part of the reason the final is taking place in Chennai in the first place. It was originally slated for the national academy on the outskirts of Bengaluru, only to be moved in order to accommodate the thousands of fans desperate to glimpse the child prince of Indian cricket in the flesh. Sooryavanshi is the hottest player in the world right now, a 15-year-old left-handed jaw-dropping genius with records spilling out of his pockets. But when it comes to red-ball cricket, the classic form of the game, he’s still – by any objective measure – not very good.

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England seek calm end to chaotic Test summer against penitent Pakistan

Late-night drinking incidents and a post-Bazball reboot have given the hosts plenty to think about, while the tourists have their own problems to sort out

There are some chilly white-ball games still to come this month and with it the sight of Kevin Pietersen back in England training kit for the first time in 12 years. KP is down with the kids these days, 6/7 memes and the like, and starts a new life as the “specialist mentor” to Harry Brook’s young thrusters.

But the final Test of the summer that starts at Edgbaston on Wednesday does feel like an end of sorts, or at least one last push before a breather for the side that has undergone the more significant recalibration. And that is before we get on to Pakistan and a tour that has descended into a bonfire of players and a phone-snatching investigation into “discipline and conduct”.

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