The Yorkshireman ran the chase against Australia at Headingley three years ago and played a strong hand against India last year. On Thursday he was England’s top-scorer but the slightest misjudgment against Ali Usman’s left-arm spin on 91 was costly. He’s still waiting to take the helmet off at home, for Headingley to rise after he’s reached three figures in a Test match.
He will have to keep waiting a few years. The ground finds itself without a men’s Test for the next two years, not part of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s allocation for the visit of Pat Cummins’s Australia in 2027. It will have to wait until 2031 for that money-spinning fixture.
With Old Trafford off the list too, there will not be a men’s Ashes Test in the north next summer. Sanjay Patel, Yorkshire’s chief executive, has called the absence of men’s Test cricket over the next two years “devastating” for the club, echoing the sentiments expressed in their most recent annual report and accounts. Even with Yorkshire selling their Hundred franchise, granting them £52.1m and clearing their debts – radically changing their financial outlook – they still need Test cricket around here.
The Test game too has certainly enjoyed Headingley, particularly in recent years. There were Shai Hope’s twin tons for the victorious West Indies in 2017, and a couple of Baz-fuelled chases against New Zealand and India. The 2023 Ashes Test was a tight one that kept that series ticking and the cherry, of course, is Ben Stokes’s unbeaten 135 in 2019 while Jack Leach wiped his specs.
Would any of this ground’s underdog magic soak itself into Pakistan’s batting here? This will not go down as one of the classics, the gulf between these two sides far too significant, making it a bittersweet Friday at Headingley. After two rain-interrupted days the place found a breeze to go with the sunshine, the stands packed, but there was no contest.
Salman Ali Agha’s side crumbled in rather depressing style, failing to string together a stand of note. Mohammad Rizwan played his shots but there was always a significant chance in the morning that this would wrap before the weekend. They are used to home victories around here – this was England’s seventh successive Test win at Headingley – but they are also used to a good game.
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