Ben Stokes’ England go bolder still as they look to complete historic 3-0 Test series sweep of Pakistan | Cricket News

England’s ethos under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum has been to take the aggressive option at every turn – and the tourists have been bolder still as they go in search of history.

Stokes’ side are aiming to do what no team has done before and win a Test series 3-0 in Pakistan, with a teenager who has just three first-class games to his name hoping to help them do it.

Leicestershire leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed has come into the bowling attack and will become his nation’s youngest male Test cricketer when he plays in Karachi at the age of 18 years and 126 days.

Ahmed may be a Test novice but he is no stranger to the England team – Stokes, in particular – having been in and around the group as early as the age of 11, initially as a net bowler in 2016. He returned around a year later shortly after turning 13 and soon turned heads as well.

“I had Joe Root caught at extra-cover, Stokes was nicked off and so was Alastair Cook,” Ahmed told Sky Sports in February as he reflected on dismissing some top players in training.

“I was bowling to international players and bowling well. That was when I thought, ‘I want to play cricket for a living.'”

That is what Ahmed is now doing. Contracted to Leicestershire, for whom he took a five-wicket haul and scored a century in his most recent first-class game in September, and contracted to Southern Brave, for whom he made five appearances during the second edition of The Hundred this summer.

Ahmed’s next step – his Test bow – is his biggest of all and that also applies to England. A series win in Pakistan is great, but a clean sweep would truly cap what has been a staggering Test turnaround. It would see them go from one win in 17 to nine victories from 10.

Questions were asked about whether England’s freewheeling style, which yielded six wins in seven home Tests, would work on flat Pakistani pitches where attritional cricket was previously the norm, while few would have perhaps predicted Stokes’ side being 2-0 up with one to play when, on the eve of the first Test, illness swept through the camp and talk turned to a possible delayed start.

The illness has abated but the intent has not with England’s blistering run-scoring, including clubbing over 500 on day one of the series in Rawalpindi, and Stokes’ attacking leadership helping the tourists become the first England side to win two Tests on an away tour of Pakistan.

The aggressive captaincy from Stokes to declare at tea on day four of the Rawalpindi Test and leave Pakistan a tempting chase of 343 in four sessions was quite rightly lauded, but it was his shrewd captaincy that ensured England won that game as he delayed the deployment of the second new ball while he, Ollie Robinson and James Anderson were finding hooping reverse swing with the old one.

Then, in Multan, his continued aggressive fields and canny bowling changes, including not bringing new-ball bowler extraordinaire James Anderson on until fifth change in the second innings, worked again as England completed another late-in-the-day victory.

The success in Multan clinched a first series triumph against Pakistan away from home since Nasser Hussain’s team in 2000.

Speaking after the Multan Test, Sky Sports Cricket’s Michael Atherton said of Stokes: “He’s transformed England’s Test match team, galvanised an outfit with few changes, and that is the measure of leadership. He’s going to be one of our greatest ever captains by the time he finishes, I think.

“I can’t remember another captain, certainly England and maybe worldwide, who has had such a dramatic and immediate impact upon taking over.

“Think where England were. They were terrible in the Ashes and were then beaten by the West Indies in the Caribbean. It is amazing how it’s changed and that’s down to leadership. It’s incredible.”

The Stokes-led revival of the Test team has really whet the appetite for next summer’s Ashes.

Australia will be thinking about it, despite a big series starting at home to South Africa on Saturday, and England are thinking about it, too. One of the reasons Anderson has been rested for the final fixture against Pakistan is with that series against Pat Cummins’ side in mind.

Australia will be coming up against a vastly different England team, in mindset if not personnel, in June and July of next year. The side that crumpled to a 4-0 defeat Down Under last winter and one that feared a run chase of 273 from 75 overs against New Zealand at Lord’s in June 2021 despite no World Test Championship points being at stake has been replaced by a fearless band of cricketers.

A bold team who smash boundaries and run-rate records, who do away with Test cricket’s conventions and seemingly every team they face, and who are not afraid to hand a teenage leg-spinner with just three first-class matches under his belt a Test match debut.

Transformation complete, now for the sweep.

Watch day one of the third Test between Pakistan and England live on Sky Sports from 4.30am on Saturday. The first ball is at 5am.