Test Match Special - England’s historic 2022 win in Pakistan

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Jonathan Agnew and the TMS team share memories of the astonishing England tour to Pakistan in 2022.England won the first series they’d played in Pakistan in 17 years, becoming the first side to complete a 3 nil victory with some record breaking batting and outstanding bowling. Aggers is joined by Simon Mann, Andy Zaltzman, Aatif Nawaz and Alex Hartley plus we also hear reflections from Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

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you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. T's and Cs apply. Pakistan. Get full analysis of Pakistan versus England on the BBC Sport website and app. And we're going to be looking back on England's historic tour here two years ago. It was England's first tour to Pakistan for 17 years, it seems extraordinary, doesn't it? It was nearly delayed because the England team all went down ill the day before that first test match. There was talk of it being delayed by a day or two. And that first match produced that wonderful, extraordinary win in the dusk of the first test match.

There was a century in every test match for Harry Brooke. There was Rehan Ahmed's test debut in that final match and, of course, a 3-0 historic win that all began on a record-breaking opening day. Allie's on his way. Bowles to Stokes him, and hits him into the leg side. That breaks the record. How far has it gone?

Waiting for the umpire, it's gone all the way. 5002 for 4 in the 75th over on the first day of a test series. Wow. I think the question, will it work against every opposition, will probably keep being asked until we play against every opposition? Because that seemed to be the trick of the summer was, you can't do this against New Zealand. Worked, can't do this against South Africa, you know, it worked and we won the series, and oh,

you can't do this against the Indian attack, they're too good, you know, it worked again. And then same again in Pakistan, you know, with the pitchers and everything like that, you know, is it going to work, you know, no, you have to be patient, you have to, like, stick in and play for the long haul, but that's not how we wanted to operate when we came out here. Yes, completely different conditions, and, you know, just you sort of have to think completely differently because of the wickets and stuff like that, but still just playing with the same mindset, just slightly differently, because, you know, adjusting to the conditions, but still focusing on what the goal is, which is to give yourself the best opportunity to win a test

match and obviously the first game was was one of those times where it was you know like right just don't know just sort of dangle a little carrot to Pakistan and say you know here you go the game's the game's there for you but you know are you good enough to come and do it against us with the way in which we're we want to operate on the test match leeks again strides in balls it's in on the pad appeal for him before we're getting up how wilson gives him out and the scene shah will have to review this he does He trapped him on the front foot. Pitching in line.

Impact in line. And it's hitting the stumps. So you can stay with your decision, Joel. England win. And signal now. By 74 runs, umpire Wilson raises the finger. And England have won this match in the most thrilling of circumstances. The sun is just dipping behind the water tank.

England have gambled. positive. They threw the gauntlet down and they have won this match by 74 runs on the blandest flattest pitch you could find. Ingo's Robinson then looking for that one wicket to win and Ali's forward is caught behind and Ingrid have won the series. They've won their second consecutive test match here. They're celebrating they've won by 26 runs and that's a terrific effort to have won their second match here, never been done before and you have to say there's two gripping test matches and Ben Stokes with a huge smile at his face leads his players off we all understand what we've managed to achieve today and to you know come to Pakistan and wins

obviously very very difficult and you know it turned out to be another another down-to-the-wire game again so yeah couldn't have obviously gone any better for us in these first two games and it's another great game to be a part of. Racine runs in. Bowles to Duckett, who slashes that for four-through point. And England have done it. They've achieved something here that nobody has ever done. England have come to Pakistan and they've won 3-0. And how fitting that the captain, Ben Stokes,

who's led this turnaround from the front, is out there at the moment those winning runs were struck. It's a remarkable transformation in English test cricket, led by Stokes and Brendan McCullum and they will start to celebrate now that's for sure many of them brought their flights forward to the early hours of the morning there's a long time between now and then and I think they'll enjoy themselves

and quite rightly so what a victory and what a tour it's been too what a series three weeks ago if I said to you England I'm going to win this series 3-0 what would you have said I hope so that'd be nice you thought it was possible to come out here

and do what you've done yeah well I think you know the way in which we speak and I've spoken, obviously since I've done this role, is almost just not worrying about the result, just going out, playing, expressing ourselves as a team and trying to give ourselves the best chance of winning and always thinking like that.

So, yeah, I guess, you know, winning 3-0 proves that it can't work on the odd occasion. It's been quite an incredible three and a half, four weeks for this side, not just on the field, but I've seen some real growth and camarader develop off the field as well and you know you walk away from this tour saying we've achieved something really special

and this group will never forget it so a really awesome three and a half weeks Brandon McCollum finishing some highlights there of that 3-0 win here two years ago it was a very happy tour I mean the cricket was terrific it was really entertaining lots of memories of that I'm sure

and we'll be to look back while some of the team who were with us back then Andy Zoltz and Simon Mann and Attie Alex Hartley will be with us shortly. It was a three test series. Matches played in Rolpindi, that was the first one, here in Miltan, and then the final test match was in Karachi. So we started Rolpindi, but after a 17-year wait, we nearly had to wait for an extra day because a lot of the England team went down with illness before the game.

There was actually talk of delaying the match by a day, and they actually were talking quite seriously about that happening as well. So go on Andy, just to give us a reminder of that extraordinary game because it really was an incredible match. Well, yeah, I guess just to put the series in context, it was after that first summer of Basball that we heard them talking about. They'd won five and lost one of the six tests. Prior to that, England had won just one out of 17 matches.

And they'd scored at, I think we're around about four and a half and over over the six tests of the summer. Pakistan came into the series, having lost 1-0 over three matches to Australia, with a very inexperienced bowling attack with Shahin Shah Fridi who'd been outstanding for them over the previous few years out injured. England on that first day scored 506 for 4 in 75 overs

ended up 657 in 101 overs. The first time a team had ever batted for more than 50 overs in the test innings and scored over a runner ball. Centuries for Crawley and Duckett who put on 233 in 3. 35 overs and four balls for the first wicket. Olly Pope at three scored a century.

Harry Brooke, 153 batting at five. It was a really extraordinary and unprecedented assault on this rather green Pakistan bowling attack for whom only Nassim Shah had played test cricket before. They had three debutant bowlers, Mohammed Ali, Harris, Ralph and the leg spin in Zahid Mahmoud, who all took some fairly horrific punishment through that innings.

Then Pakistan responded with a two-under-run opening stand of their own. They got to 225 before they lost their first wicket. They were 413 for three before Sao Tshakil was out. They had hundreds from Abdullah Shafik, Imam al-Hak, and Barbara Azam, and got up to 579. It was the kind of game that in previous times would have had ball draw written all over it. But because England had scored so fast, there was all a reasonable amount of time left in the game.

They then came out thrashing in their second innings, 264 for 7 in 35.5 overs, half centuries for Crawley Root and Brook all at better than a run a ball. And so they then had to bowl Pakistan out, which they did in 96.3 overs with the light closing in and what is about 10 or 15 minutes left before it would have been too dark, 268 all out. Superb performance from the Seamus, Olly Robinson, 4 for 50, James Anderson, 4 for 36 from 24. over's a wicket for Stokes and that final wicket for Jack Leach. It was

doing the one by 74 runs with just minutes to spare. I think one of the more extraordinary test matches that England have ever been involved in. And a great blow struck for bowlers by the man of the match adjudicator because of all those hundreds. Who was man of the match? Well, Ollie Robinson

was man of the match. He had one wicket in the first things with those four wickets in the second top order wickets. You got Abdullah Shafiak Azarali, Sao Chakil had made a fighting 76 and Aga Salman so four of Pakistan's top

seven was a superb performance I'll never forget Simon the way that Zach Crawley played that day I mean it was just the most glorious innings I know Duckett scored 100 as well I remember going up to Crawley and saying

gosh you know well played and actually Duckett was standing with him and I almost forgot to say yeah by the way well played because Crawley's hitting is was absolutely think sensational well the other thing about him as well is did he fit into this England side did he have it you know he was

nicking it off he was he was in England test player lots of people said he wasn't but he came out that day and played magnificently well they 170 by lunchtime it was kind of test cricket we hadn't really seen before even though we'd seen best oh you know whack it at Trent Bridge but that was just something completely

different it was on another level of attacking and exciting cricket really and I mean that barely it's still quite hard to believe they've scored 500 in a day isn't it? It is but you'll think about it now and interesting Yatif I mean is it unkind to say

that test cricket in Pakistan within Pakistan it's not normally associated with exciting cricket I mean there are a lot of draws they're short days and Fridays are shorter than the others but actually this test match I suspect did an awful lot for the image of Pakistan

test cricket well there's always been a lot of goodwill to sort of England anyway in Pakistan like the local fans get very excited about seeing England come over I think that was reflected in the crowds that we saw in particularly in Raulbindi during that first test match there was some very exciting cricket being played

so it was wonderful that that was played in front of big crowds you know people who'd have to brave like extensive security it was just very difficult to get into the ground you always saw crowds swell over that sort of first session towards the end of the first session you might have close to a full house

So, yeah, I think without a doubt, one of the more exciting heavy run-scoring test matches. I would say there's been plenty of drama in test matches in Pakistan over the years. There's been loads of moments that are quite gripping in their own way. But in terms of sort of flamboyant run-scoring, free-flowing shots and the sort of back-and-forth of that game, because a lot of people forget, you know, Pakistan batted exceptionally well as well. It can't be too often you score 579 in the first innings and lose the test match. It's the context as well, isn't it? When you think of Pakistan tours in the past,

you know, OK, England went to the UAE and played some cricket against Pakistan. But in Pakistan, it was lots and lots of draws. And quite short days as well, because of the light, the time of year you're playing five and a half hour days. England only won twice in Pakistan, two test matches. The first ever match they played in 1961, and then the win in the dark where it's probably, you know, really shouldn't have happened in a way.

They probably should have come off a bad light. So that almost shouldn't have happened as well. They would have done now with the umpars regulations. Well, they probably would have done. I mean, were they been able to use lights, they probably would have been able to now, it might have kept them on, I don't know, anyway. But the point being that, you know, there's been lots and lots of draws, and probably been that exciting, quite attritional. And then suddenly, what, lunchtime first day, 174 for no wicket, Zach Crawley, 91 not out at lunch. 174 for no wicket at lunch.

And it's funny, I mean, you mentioned the whole security aspect there at Eiff, and it's worth us dwelling on that because it was quite a surreal atmosphere. And in fact, Imran Khan's followers who have been a bit lively up in Islam about the last. few days, they had a big meeting, I think just a couple of days for the test match, and I think they had to ask them to disperse from near the ground, but the whole question of security it's rather

dominated that series as well. On the one hand incredibly entertaining cricket, but on the other, it was very restrictive and it was so important for Pakistan that that series went to hear without any sort of issue. And it was very clear that they didn't want to take any chances. I mean, the Pakistan

Cricket Board, the various authorities and local governments and things like that. They went over, you know, I think it's fair to say they went overboard pretty much, but they just didn't want to leave anything to chance. They knew how big a series this was. There was a huge contingent of fans traveling from England as well, multiple tour companies, you know, stars of the cricketing world coming over. They wanted to make sure that the whole tour went off without an incident, which it did.

And I think, you know, that's fair. Security, I mean, this time around it doesn't feel as intense, if I'm honest, but, you know, it's evident here in Moulban as well, because we drive through actual people this time rather than empty roads and they're not closing off the city. And I think that's important as well because you don't want local people to start resenting the cricket. You don't want to think, oh, the cricket's in town.

I'm going to shut up, shop. I'm not going to make any money this week. You know, so on and so forth. You want it to inject things into the local economy rather than take things away. So that's very important. But I think the last time around, there was no question of taking any chances.

It was quite sort of understandable that they went a little bit over the top. you do want to ensure the comfort of everybody visiting I think that's something they've thought about a lot ahead of this tour you know there were times which were a little bit uncomfortable I remember that we didn't get to do a huge amount in Multan we did some stuff which we'll talk about later I'm sure

but you know I think safety was paramount and it's important that it continues to be as Pakistan looks to get itself back on that map of you know a destination for cricket lovers I mean I remember thinking before the tour I was quite apprehensive about coming actually I never thought I'd come to Pakistan again. I came in 96 for the World Cup

and we were there in Lahore for the final and then you had a massive absence from coming to Pakistan I thought never happen again so you felt that sense of apprehension when you got here you felt actually this is fine it works and I think looking back

it was probably one of the best tours I've been on the cricket was so interesting and just being here was interesting as well so on the field and off the field fascinating sort of three and a half wings and on the field i must say that last half hour or so of commentating and you know we'd had covid the whole question of you know essentially because we had rights but having to commentate off television and so on which is a fairly sterile business and people are inclined to do it these days because

it saves money but you couldn't have commentated off the television with that drama with you could see the sun going down you could actually see how bad the light was you've you sensed the time and all of that you know it was you had to be here you had to be here you had to be be here, I think, to really, to set the scene and to convey the drama home. It was, it was a fantastic. Yeah, we don't really know how long England had to win that match, do we? No. You just see that sun dropping.

Yeah, the clock was ticking, and it was minutes, wasn't it, left? Two minutes, five minutes, whatever, ten minutes. We weren't sure. Yeah, that was a great, a great finish. So that's the first test match, one that I think, that really set it up. Then, of course, the drive from Royal Pindi to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, Elton, which in itself is an adventure I did a couple of days ago. It takes seven to eight hours, depending on the driver, and whether he takes a short distance and sometimes veers from one carriageway to the other or whether he goes in the carriageway is supposed to go in, how many times you stop and that sort of thing. But that felt like an adventure as well, actually. It was quite a discovery for me. I'd never been on the Pakistani sort of motorway up until that point, and it was...

Not a single cone, by the way. Not a single roadworks. roadworks? Not a cone. No diversion. In eight hours. No lane closures. No, no average distance speed cameras. Well, that's the thing. No speed cameras. Well, the one thing that I tell people about to this day is the service station that we stopped at. It was just incredible.

What was it called? Happy Heaven or something. Heaven Paradise Food Stop or something. Whatever it was, it was so elaborate. It was so big. It had sort of multiple options of like sort of eastern and western eateries and then obviously you got your souvenir stuff and there was like a drive

through for a famous American donut chain which you know just sent me into hysterics I just really enjoyed it was one of my favorite memories of that whole tour was stopping at that service station and it's I've been to many service stations that you can imagine in my lifetime just to be doing

stand-up comedy and things like that that's genuinely in my all-time top three okay right we're not much competition at home no I remember also remember the journey out of Islamabad we went on this huge convoy

I mean, we picked up all the supporters as well, didn't we went to the hotel, we waited at the hotel for them to come down, we've gone on these buses out, and then we've taken out of Islamabad, a convoy, and about 10 miles out, it was like, off you go then, and off we're free to go. We were free to go, all the police left us, the army, whatever, and we just drove down this motor.

And actually, the scenery, it's absolutely stunning. I'm looking forward to the return journey. It's very green, lots of... And the hills and oranges, almost ready to go. It is, it's a really interesting part of the world. I was saying yesterday he goes over that salt mountain, where the pink salt comes from so you'll enjoy it so let's talk about the game before we get too far ahead go on and then andy what happened in that second test match well it was a rather lower

scoring game a very tight match england again scored quickly well over five and over but were bowled out in under 52 overs for 281 the big difference in the pakistan attack was the debutant spinner abrah armad able to spin the ball both ways he'd been strangely left out of the opening test, despite having he had a stellar record in Pakistan domestic cricket over the previous couple of seasons. He came in and took 7 for 114

dismissed Zach Crawley early on. He befuddled Ben Stokes bowled him out for 30. Half centuries for Duckett and Pope. But not an imposing score by England, but once again their bowlers came up Trump's four wickets for Jack Leach

after it would have been a fairly difficult first test apart from that final decisive wicket, four for 98 for him. Pakistan bowled out for 202 and good support from Mark Wood picked up a couple of wickets. Joe Root chipped in with a couple as well and one each for Anderson and Robinson. So we're starting to see the weaknesses in that Pakistan side exposed. England made 275, brilliant century from Brook 108. Ben Duckett made 79 but very little apart from 41 from Ben Stokes Abra. Four more wickets

to take 11 for 234 in the match. England attacked him but he did pick up wickets throughout but the rest of their bowling attack Fahim Ashraf got bits and pieces all rounder and Mohammed Ali journeyman domestic Seema no wickets between them in the match possibly Pakistan's the weakest opening bowling pair in their certainly in their recent test history

and Zahid Mahmoud again pick up six wickets but England attacked him throughout So that set Pakistan 355 to win, and they put Rizwan up to open. He made 30, Abdullah Shafik, 45. Babur was bowled by Robinson for one. So England were on top at that stage at 83 for 3, but then Imam al-Hakken Saad Shaquil, who was putting together the superb debut series

who were talking about, made a half century in the first innings, recovered the situation. And then it got to the stage where Pakistan were 290 for 5, with Mohamed Nawaz and Shaquille going well, needing just another 65 to win, but then Mark Wood came to the four. He had Nawaz caught behind by Pope, then Saoed Shaquille caught down the leg side,

a ball that took numerous replays before they worked out whether or not it had carried to Pope. Shaquille, six short of his century, and then they ran through the tail to win, thrillingly by just 26 runs. Wood four for 65, two each for Robinson and Anderson. And it was a theme we saw throughout the series, how England seamers were the difference.

It was that we mentioned at the start of play yesterday. Overall in the three tests, 26 wickets, average 23 for England, seamers. Pakistan seamers in the series, 11 wickets average over 62. It's a little nudge of the memory there too, because if you put in a pub quiz, who kept wicket for England in that historic 3-0 series in Pakistan? And we go, well, folks, surely.

But, of course, he'd gone down ill. He was one of those victims before Royal Pindi. Ollie Pope kept wicket and he did it throughout it. Well, folks came in in the third test in Karachi because those two decisive tests Pope kept out. Yeah, I mean, it's extraordinary how these things work out and that was a good catch.

It was a terrific spell of fast bowling. Again, you've talked about coming to Pakistan and you're not necessarily, I mean, all the Pakistan produces good fast bowlers themselves, but for Mark Wood, I know he ranks that as one of his finest spells. We were spoiled on that series. Two brilliant games.

The first one was dramatic, and this one was a dramatic game, as well. I talked about Mark Wood. I remember going over to the far side of the ground, interviewing afterwards, he was so tired that he wanted to do the interview sitting down. That's so tired he was. Normally, you've got something left in the legs, stand up, interview, whatever, and he

was just sitting there on the grass lying down because he was so shattered. He'd put in a lot into that game. Well, the other things, well, it ended in four days that game. It's easy to forget that. It wasn't a five-day game. You think of Pakistan, you know, being quite attritional cricket, but it was cricket on fast forward, and it ended well inside the distance in time, four

days. Yeah, which let us go off and two, but it was sites thing, which we'll talk about in a minute, I'm sure. Where did Abra come from? Well, Abra had a terrific season, that first class season. The reason a lot of people were frustrated with him not being included in the first test is because the vast majority of his wickets had happened at Raul Bindi, because he played for the team, the domestic team that played at Ralph Bindi. So they thought, well, this guy's taking a bucket load of wickets at this venue. Why is he not playing? You know, Pakistan always sort of develops these sort of mystery spinners. Mystery spin is quite, you know, sought after in

Pakistani domestic cricket. As you can imagine, playing on a lot of surfaces that don't give you a lot. You want someone who can do something a little bit special with the ball. And Abra was a bit of a revelation. I think initially the thought process was he's going to be a white ball specialist. And then somewhere somebody changed their mind. He has this terrific first class season. He comes straight into the Pakistan team.

And at the time, I remember commenting on his first wicket and is seven-fur in that first innings. And I thought, okay, you know, now he's going to be a mainstay. now this is guy this is going to be our guy this is going to be our spinner for Pakistan and they you know it just it didn't happen really sadly didn't really push on for him he wasn't able to have much of an impact in his subsequent test matches and he wasn't really a sure thing for this series either but he is he is there in contention yeah it's good to see him back and i think he'll enjoy bowling at england again yeah one lovely side story of that was because

it did end in four days we had a day to spare and we managed to persuade the very tight security to go off and do a little bit of sightseeing, didn't we? And as a gratitude to the head of the security, we managed to get a cap sign. I got, you've got that bag from the PCB and one of those baseball caps. And we got it signed by Barbara Azam, who was the captain, of course. And so time came when we were leaving Miltan to say, thank you so much to our security. It looked after us so well. And I had this cap, and I thought this man's going to be thrilled with this. Head of security, thank you so much. Here is a cap sign of the captain of Pakistan. You're going to love this. when I approached in a little gathering there

and it's on film, wasn't it? I said, who is your favourite cricketer in the world? Assuming he'd say Barbarazam, he said, Joss Butler. Joss Butler. So I looked at this cap and we'd actually got to quite a lot of hard work for as well. There was a bit of a wind-up. There's a whole question as well. Anyway, that's another story.

But I thought, well, all that effort. Well, you can have a caps on by Barbarazam instead. So there we go. But we did get out about, which was nice as well after that one. That day out in Muldban was lovely. It was really lovely. We went to three different places. We went to see the Agnew Monument.

Yes, very important. Very important. You actually related to him. I've never been his name's Agnew. Look, all he did was he sparked the second Anglo-Sik war. Poor chap. He's 26. He gets sent over by the British government to come and set up a tax service here in Pakistan.

And they weren't very pleased. So they murdered him. And his mate. I want to see proof of the lineage, I guess, and you're related. It'll be there. We can get you one of those tests, you know. It'll be there. DNA ancestry tests.

His name is, I'm claiming him. I'm very proud of him, poor chap. He suffered horribly. They had two goes at him, actually. And he's got this amazing monument. If you come to Bultan, obviously, it's the main thing to do here in Wiltan. He's going to look at this incredible column. I got a picture of Agas in front of it, but it's such a long monument that I couldn't take it without going for a wide-angle lens.

And so the photo I have of Agas just has him with really long legs. I've got Stephen Finn's legs. He looks like he's on stilts in the photo. But we also went to the Shah Rukhnealam, which is one of the many Sufi shrines around. And Multan, it's called the city of saints. So there's loads and loads of shrines. We went over there. I remember you guys.

I mean, you guys take his shoes and socks off, which wasn't necessary. I can tell you now. It was just a bit of fun for me. Oh, is that right? Just a bit of fun for me. And then we also went to Karsimbarg Stadium, which was the old test stadium here in Moulpan, just beautiful cricket. Now it's sort of a recreational ground.

Anybody can go and have their own game of cricket or have a picnic, whatever you want. But it was such a lovely day. It's one of my favorite memories of any cricket tour I've ever been on, just sharing that with. you guys. So that was a lot of fun. It is a very historic place. There's no doubt Miltan. So that's Miltan. There's 2-0 down to Karachi would go in and of course have won the series and they made that surprising clues. They called in the 18-year-old Rian Ahmed of course of great high hopes for him and his younger brother too incidentally. So Zoltz

Karachi then let's just give us a reminder of that. Well it was close in first innings. Pakistan 300 and 4. 4 wickets for Jack Meets. Rian Ahmed picked up two on debut. Numerous unconverted starts for Pakistan. Babarazam was run out on 78. I had a curious series of century in the first test, half century, and it was 75 in the second,

but two second in its failures that proved costly. England responded with 354 all out in just over 81 over, so again scoring at a fast rate. They were in trouble early on, 98 for 4, then 145

for 5 when Ben Stokes saw that, with a super partnership between Harry Brooke, who made a century for the third consecutive test and Ben Fokes with 64 and of numerous high-impact innings he had in the early stages of Basball took England to a 50-run lead, 354 all out, and then they bowled Pakistan out for 216 with Ray and Armour taking 5 for 48 on debut, three more wickets for Leach, so seven in the match for him. So the spinners proved more influential in that final test after the Pacers had done the bulk of the wicket-taking work in the first two.

Riyan Ahmed picked up Baburazam, flaying a long hop to mid-wicket, and Pakistan's resolve seemed to crumble after that. England set just 167 to win, and they came out thrashing an 87-run opening stand in just 11.5 overs. That's only the third day, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a third day. They were trying to finish it at the end of the third day. And a very quick match.

They sent in Rian Ahmed at number three to have a swing. He was out eighth ball for ten. And then Ben Stokes, I think he needed one six to overtake Brendan McCullum to the all-time six-hitting list in test cricket. Tried numerous heaves, none of which cleared the ropes. England won early on the fourth day by eight wickets with Stokes unbeaten on 35 and Duckett on 82. And over the course of the series, they scored at just over five and a half an over, which was comfortably the fastest the team has ever scored

in a test match series. I just remember the end of that third day thinking they're not really, they've got two days to go. It was almost as if they were so full of confidence and it was almost running away with them and they couldn't have won on that third day but they still had to go at it.

Well they had 17 overs. 17 overs were bold and they made 112 for two and they were looking at 170. One thing we haven't mentioned very much we've alluded to it, Harry Brooke in that series. Fantastic series.

I mean, he really emerged there and he made 300s, another score as well. And, yeah, he was saying, I was interviewing just about every day because he was doing so well every day. And, you know, he said, one thing, he said, well, the pitch is out of here, the best I've ever batted on. And he certainly cashed in. Yeah, he played brilliantly. Alex is here because, of course, Atif had gone home at this stage.

And so, well, you did the whole tour, of course, you went just a substitute. Yeah, so let's get you all. your thoughts on that whole on that whole series first of all what were you what were you expecting when he came out here because you hadn't been before do you know what I honestly have no I didn't have any expectations I thought I don't know what it's going to be like is he going to be a bit like mix of India and Sri Lanka put together I didn't have a clue and I obviously had heard things that no one no one had been and toured Pakistan for such a long time I saw a picture of you lot

from years ago and we sort of tried to recreate it and do it again and swap me out for Ali Mitchell or the other way around. But I didn't really have any expectations. And for the cricket wise for me, I'd never seen cricket played in Pakistan before. I've got to be honest. I'd never seen it. I'd never watched the PSL. I'd never watch cricket out here because when I've started following test cricket, Pakistan played in the UAE. So I've only ever seen Pakistan play in the UAE. But it was I was quick to realize that the pitches were flat. The pitches were very, very flat. And a lot of runs were going to be scored and

you know it exceeded my expectations and I absolutely loved it the people for me was so kind and have been on this trip as well they'll literally move mountains for you and and I since then you know I've got a job out here and I absolutely love coming back you and I got a sense I think

fairly early of what the atmosphere was like in that England set up because we had a little routine every day didn't we're going out and looking at the pitch and sort of wandering around and picking up any gossip and with Brendan McCullough and Paul Collingwood and those around And there was just such an easy conversation, wasn't there? They seemed incredibly relaxed, very welcoming,

and you've just got a feeling that the sense of what that England dressing room atmosphere was like. Yeah, and I think it shows, doesn't it, when, you know, day one of the second test, we were just out in the middle. We could actually get closer to the wicket than we can now. They said to Ben, what are you going to do at the toss? And he told us exactly what you're going to do, and why? And it was like, oh, okay, they're very relaxed. You know, when we get back to the hotel,

it'd be, do you want to come around for a beer? I know it can be, you know, quite lonely on tour sometimes. So, you know, the team was so welcoming, and I think the way they played their cricket, you could see that as well. I mentioned the extraordinary batting, but to take 60 wickets in three tests in Pakistan was really the greatest achievement of that side. Will Jacks took a debut six for in the first test, with Rayan Ahmed taking that debut fifer in between,

and the outstanding performance of the three seamers used in the series. Wood Robinson and Anderson all had decisive interventions at some point Simon mentioned that the two wins England had in Pakistan prior to that in 1961 and 2000 they didn't take 20 wickets in a test in Pakistan in between that 19 matches

over 40 years now modern cricket is different but that puts into some context what an achievement that was by the polling attack favourite moment anybody I don't know I loved Muhammad Ali disappearing when he was supposed to be batting at Royal Pindi he disappeared in the dressing room and have to go and flush him out because he's trying to

he was trying to waste time I mean there was so many on that tour both on and off the field I remember actually Zoltz and Dan Norcross had came out for the last game the restrictions in Karachi were just released

we were allowed to do whatever we like and we remember just walking out we went to a museum and then we ended up with a game of cricket with the locals that was fabulous you know you wouldn't have thought that would have been possible

in his Lamaband and Moultham because we weren't you know we were caged in almost but it was a wonderful trip well my favourite moment was half involving actors and you've half already told the story

actually of the Baba Azam cat, but you didn't actually do the full story of me saying that Baba refused to sign it because he didn't like you. Yes, I was very worried about that, and I was going through all the BBC articles I'd done over the years. See, if I were possibly rude about Baba Azam? And of course, I hadn't been, but there you go.

That was a good wind-up to all of that. Anyway, there we go, that was fun looking back at that. It was a terrific tour, and if you ever get the chance to come out here and watch cricket, and a number have, not as many as probably might have done because of the rather chaotic build-up to this. Do come. You'll have a very, very warm welcome indeed and you'll see some good cricket.

The TMS podcast live from Pakistan get full analysis of Pakistan versus England on the BBC sport website and app