| Venue: Karachi Date: 17-21 December (05:00 GMT) |
| Coverage: Live Test Match Special radio and text commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra & BBC Sport website, plus desktop, tablets, mobiles and app. |
They call Karachi the ‘City of Lights’, but its greatest link to English cricket was a moment of near-darkness.
Their last visit here for a Test, 22 years ago, is famous for Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe running from the field, arm-in-arm, having inflicted Pakistan’s first defeat at the National Stadium and securing England a first series win in this country since 1961.
England now aim for history once more. Ben Stokes’ team are already the first England side to win two Tests on an away tour of Pakistan. No team has ever left this country with a 3-0 win.
This is the last stop on a landmark first visit to Pakistan in 17 years. For the first Test in Rawalpindi, England stayed in manicured capital Islamabad before moving on to storied Multan, one of the oldest cities in the world. Vibrant Karachi takes its City of Lights moniker from its bustling nightlife.
The welcome extended to all on tour has been the warmest imaginable. There is genuine gratitude towards those who have made the trip. Shopkeepers, waiters and hotel staff want to know what the English think about Pakistan and if we will return.
On the pitch, Pakistan have taken the hospitality to the extreme by picking only one bowler, Abrar Ahmed, who has looked like taking a wicket.
Home fans have appreciated the swashbuckling cricket played by England, even it has been at the expense of the hosts.
The Multan Stadium was too far out of town and too vast to be filled, but intimate Rawalpindi was intensely atmospheric. Witnessing captain Babar Azam’s hundred was like being invited to take part in a ritual of mass worship.
England have faced challenges. The illness that hit the squad the day before the first Test almost caused the match to be delayed by a day.
Stokes gauged the fitness of his team on the morning of the match by replies in a WhatsApp group and the captain had to persuade spinner Jack Leach to play. The illness lingered in Multan, too. Stokes almost threw up in his post-match press conference.
Security in Multan was suffocating for all travellers – players, media and fans. Even though gunfire was heard the day before the second Test began – the shots were attributed to rival business owners. There was a certain unease over an entire city being shut down, disrupting shops, schools and daily life, just so the English could get to the cricket.
Culturally diverse Karachi, the biggest city in the country, has presented the opportunity to experience life in Pakistan.
Camels that strolled along the side of the road in Multan can be ridden into the Arabian Sea on Clifton Beach, where a snake charmer will play music to a hissing black cobra. Cows’ hooves are on sale at Empress Market. In the hills, the home of two-time Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is the peak of Karachi high-life.
Not that the England players can see any of this. They remain inside their hotel, let out only for cricket or golf – and there’s a golf simulator in the team room. Their biggest danger is slipping into the swimming pool, a fate that befell Australia’s Alex Carey earlier this year.
They are on the eve of their final Test in a year of redemption, revolution and regeneration.
No team in Test history has ever followed a run of nine matches without a win by winning as many as eight of their next nine. It is a niche statistic, but serves to highlight how dramatic England’s reversal in fortunes has been.
Slowly, thoughts are turning to the Ashes – Stokes admitted as much when explaining the decision to omit 40-year-old James Anderson from the Karachi Test. There are only three more after this before England begin their bid to regain the famous urn.
Even without the injured Jonny Bairstow, England’s batting looks more solid than it has for a number of years.
In 2022, England have registered 21 individual centuries, more than the previous three years combined.
Eight different players have reached three figures, a far cry from when England’s batting was basically Joe Root plus whatever the rest could cobble together.
It was interesting to note that Root, without a century on this tour, was one of the few to attend optional training on Thursday, no doubt eager to take the last chance to leave a mark on one of the few countries he has yet to master.
Ollie Robinson has proved he possesses the skills to succeed in all conditions and is the natural successor as attack-leader when Anderson and Stuart Broad retire. He is already ahead of Broad in the pecking order.
And the sight of Mark Wood bowling rockets in Multan raises the tantalising prospect of dovetailing with Jofra Archer, who is firmly on the comeback trail.
However, the most intrigue in Karachi will surround 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed, the leg-spinner set to become the youngest man to ever play a Test for England. Not since Alfred Archer in 1903 have England fielded a player with as few as Ahmed’s three first-class matches.
It is an exciting selection. Ahmed bowls quickly, possesses a wicked googly and already has a first-class century to his name.
With the series won, his inclusion is something of a free-hit, but there are fives Tests in India next winter to plan for.
An impressive performance could also see Ahmed put pressure on Leach.
The left-armer is the only bowler to have played every Test since Stokes took charge and is an immensely popular member of the England team. However, there is a lingering feeling Leach bowls too many deliveries good players can hit for four.
Admittedly not helped by Stokes’ reluctance to drop fielders back, on this tour he has conceded a boundary four or six from every 10.5 balls bowled, compared to every 16.5 previously.
If those numbers are skewed by the speed and amount of runs scored by both teams, Root’s part-time off-spin has conceded a boundary every 15.1 balls here, compared to 16.7 prior – not nearly as a big a difference as Leach’s numbers.
As Ahmed steps on to the Test stage for the first time, former Pakistan captain Azhar Ali prepares to bow out after tearfully announcing his retirement on Friday.
A giant of Pakistani cricket, Azhar helped carry his team in the years they were exiled from playing at home. It would have been a great shame had he never experienced playing for Pakistan in his home country. If he does feature in Karachi, it will be his 10th home cap in a total of 97.
The word is the pitch at the National Stadium will turn, that we could be in for a swift Test. England say they are not focussing on the clean sweep, but the chance for history will not have gone unnoticed.
One last push in the City of Lights before home, and Christmas lights.
