England

Joe Root: 164 runs at 41.0; two catches

If a captain is as good as his bowlers, Joe Root was very good indeed on his return to his old job. Although some of his old habits (not changing the field for a new batter, chasing the ball) resurfaced at Edgbaston under the only pressure Pakistan could muster all series. Let’s hope it was a blip. The batting is more concerning, the “fast-medium pace with the keeper standing up” gremlins surely stuck in his head. He’s in that dangerous period when a technical problem can morph into a mental one and become established. All four of his dismissals in the series were lbw, which suggests he needs to spend some time with a coach and a bowling machine. Other batters have dealt with this problem late in their careers, but this issue is not, at the moment at least, going away. Grade B+

Ben Duckett: 44 runs at 8.8; two catches

His high-risk strategy of going after balls that openers have left since the 19th century was always likely to come unstuck in spectacular fashion. If this is it, unpicked unceremoniously by an attack that didn’t need to do much, it hasn’t cost England or his career as much as it might have done. Roll in dropped catches and a banishment to his old sweeper role, and it was a series to forget for England’s only Test centurion of this curious summer. Grade E

Emilio Gay: 132 runs at 26.4; two catches

He is trying so hard it can be almost painful to watch but when he unfurls that majestic cover drive all is well with the world. Until it’s not. Low scores and bad luck come with the territory of opening, but his two 30s and one 60 are more concerning. Getting through the new ball and cashing in is what openers live for – Gay is yet to prove he has that in him at this level. He should have three Tests over Christmas to convince us, and himself. Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen await. Grade C

Jordan Cox: 202 runs at 50.5; eight catches and one stumping

There’s something indefinable about him that suggests he belongs in Test cricket, an unfair point to highlight, but it matters, as it also rubs off on teammates and opponents. It was on show when he stepped in as wicketkeeper for an incapacitated Jamie Smith and radiated competence. Ollie Pope might not need to renew his passport. Like Gay, he’s yet to nail down his place and may yet lose it to a returning Jacob Bethell, but three half-centuries at No 3 in three Tests and the handy keeping will get him into plenty of touring squads and the caps will follow. Grade B+

Harry Brook: 215 runs at 53.8; no wicket for four runs; seven catches

Did he really score all those runs and average over 50 yet again? It’s so tempting to fixate on Brook’s propensity to get himself out in ways that invite the head-thrown-back disappointment that he often shows and is usually reflected by exasperated England fans. That makes it easy to forget that he played the most important innings of the series, his 91 in the first innings at Headingley establishing England’s grip on the series that barely relented until its penultimate day. Despite everything, he’s really, really good at this game. Grade A-

Dan Lawrence: 187 runs at 46.8; two wickets at 8.5; four catches

He hit the ball very hard and snaffled three half centuries in four visits to the crease, but there’s something about his quirkiness that promotes a sense of impermanence when batting and in the wider context of his place in England’s best XI. At Edgbaston, Root asked him to get a flowing Azan Awais and a rampaging Razaullah out with his awkward off-spin and he obliged. That, like his catching, is a very useful string in his bow. Grade A-

Jamie Smith: 162 runs at 40.5; three catches

His clean hitting speaks to the talent that’s been evident for years, but his keeping, under Sarah Taylor’s tutelage, has come on leaps and bounds, its impact far greater than the stats suggest. A tall man, standing up to the stumps he can get away without the dancer’s feet shorter wicketkeepers rely on, so long as his balance is right, his head still and his shoulders relaxed. At the moment, they are. Grade A-

Gus Atkinson: 74 runs at 18.5; four wickets at 66.3; two catches

Asked to bowl first change, as nobody was prising the new ball out of Ollie Robinson’s hand, he troubled all the batters but just couldn’t find the edge or the lbw. He sidestepped delivering the most threatening bowling/worst figures ratio ever from a player with some late (and crucial) wickets in Pakistan’s last hurrah. He can probably only afford the one series of “sometimes it goes that way” cricket, given the phalanx of pace options available for Stephen Fleming to peruse. Grade B-

Ollie Robinson: 58 runs at 14.5; 21 wickets at 8.8

It’s tempting to think all the talk of “little wobble” and “big wobble” is Shane Warnesque kidology designed to get into batters’ heads. Yet, there it is on camera, the seam inarguably failing to stand up straight, lurching from side to side as it makes its stately progress from fiendish fingers to hesitant bat. On contact with pitches perfect for its reception, it might jag this way or that way, or it might go straight on. Good luck with that.

This seems like a recent development in bowling, with Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad early adopters. No longer does a bowler line the seam up towards the slip cordon so that it bites the pitch and veers that way. No longer do they angle the seam towards the batter’s legs in order to send it wickedly into the pads. They bowl it with the seam wobbling this way and that, a little or a lot, so either outcome (or straight on) is equally likely after pitching. As is the case with Schrödinger’s famous cat, neither certainly dead nor certainly alive until we open the box, we don’t know if the delivery is moving out or moving in (and how much) until it hits the surface.

If that’s the technique, the discipline to keep the ball on that pinsharp Glenn McGrath line and length and not be greedy in seeking really extravagant movement made for figures that might have satisfied SF Barnes 120 years ago. Did Robinson look tired late in the day at Edgbaston when Pakistan found some backbone? If he did, he can be excused. This time. Grade A+

Jofra Archer: 71 runs at 71.0; 12 wickets at 26.7

Another who looked a little jaded by the end of a long summer, but who had earned the right with a relentless barrage of fast bowling, these days presented with skill and cunning. His ferocious bouncer to see off Saud Shakeel, Pakistan’s best batter across the series, when they were 306 for five, with English impatience growing, was a masterpiece of his art. He still betrays a little too much of his mood in his reaction to disappointment, but they were few and far between in this series, despite most of England’s drops appearing to come off his bowling. Grade A-

Josh Tongue: 65 runs at 21.7; 19 wickets at 16.3; one catch

Like the postmen once did, he always seems to deliver, sometimes with a wicket in spells often characterised by a plethora of four balls and leg-side byes. Perhaps his best attribute is to be a kind of reverse-Jofra, finding life as amusing when the luck is without him as he does when it’s with him. Most bowlers with his kind of record, with four five-fers and three four-fers in 15 Tests, have done it by getting into the zone and maximising returns. Tongue is so unpredictable that his successes just seem to happen – and that’s quite an asset in a world of forensic data-driven coaching. Grade A-

Pakistan

Shan Masood: 161 runs at 26.8; three catches

It’s impossible to lead men who are coming and going through a revolving door spun ever more rapidly by administrators with politics as much as cricket on their minds. Having put down an early sitter, his fielding from that point on was exemplary, boosting his team’s morale and restoring personal pride. Only Dan Lawrence’s diving grab denied him a valedictory century in what is likely to be his last Test innings in England. He deserved one. Grade C+

Azan Awais: 129 runs at 21.5

The young man has plenty of class through the covers, as evidenced by the crack of bat on ball, sending it skimming over the grass. But there is so little time to find one’s feet on a 21st-century tour and he suffered as a consequence early on. Insofar as you can predict anything about Pakistan cricket, I think he’ll be back. Grade C

Imam-ul-Haq: 42 runs at 21.0

He showed some of his old stubbornness in a two hours and 20 minutes stay at the crease in the series’ first innings. At Lord’s, he left the field injured and subsequently left the tour, stinging rebukes in his ears. Grade D

Saim Ayub: 0 runs at 0.0; no wicket for 58 runs

After being parachuted in for the third Test, he was twice barbecued for a pair by Robinson. But what chance did he have, really? Grade E-

Abdullah Shafique: 84 runs at 14.0

He top-scored for Pakistan in that first innings at Headingley, but the confidence drained away and he barely scored a run at Lord’s or Edgbaston. He did play all three Tests, a triumph of a kind. Grade C-

Babar Azam: 97 runs at 24.3; two catches

He looked anything but himself on returning to lead the side after missing the first Test through injury, but we saw some of the old Babar in the final innings of the series. The trouble for him is that the Babar we remember is receding fast in the rear-view mirror, recent form patchy at best. The 31-year-old looks older, but that’s what 11 years as a Pakistan international will do to you. Grade C-

Saud Shakeel: 204 runs at 34.0

A phlegmatic character, he batted beautifully at times, a strokemaker in an age of powerhitters. The figures are not impressive but one wonders how much better they would have been with a bit more support, on and off the field. Grade B-

Salman Ali Agha: 25 runs at 12.5; one catch

He started the series as stand-in captain. By the second Test he was stand-in fielder, at least taking a screamer in the slips. By the third Test, he was at home. What can one say? Grade D

Mohammad Rizwan: 61 runs at 15.3; five catches

Showed plenty of bravery standing up to the seamers, wearing plenty about the body. But if that job exposed his always weakish wicketkeeping, his batting lacked its usual verve and energy. Another on the crowded flight out of Heathrow. Grade D

Ghazi Ghori: 20 runs at 10.0; two catches

The wheel of fortune stopped on his name and he found himself standing up to Mohammad Abbas moving it both ways on debut. It was a tough gig and he did OK. Did not appear to have much idea about how to build a Test match innings in tough conditions. Who knows if we’ll see him again. Grade C

Ali Usman: 24 runs at 6.0; six wickets at 25.2

He looked a fine bowler, prepared to give his left-arm spin plenty of air and not afraid of running through his variations. His five-fer in the Headingley Test (a rare achievement at a spinner’s graveyard) offered much promise and I was looking forward to watching him through the rest of the series, with England not selecting a spinner – again. Usman bowled just 11.4 more overs before he was checking in his bags too. Grade B+

Mohammad Imran: 9 runs at 4.5; two wickets at 35.5

Flown in to bowl at Joe Root and co, he looked exactly as his record suggests – a Lancashire League pro. He did not fancy getting into line at all with the bat, but he can always say he bowled the two Surrey men, Lawrence and Atkinson. Grade D

Khurram Shahzad: 32 runs at 8.0; six wickets at 44.7

A strong bowler who bustled into the crease and sought to hit the deck hard – but not, alas, hard enough. For all the endeavour, his ordinariness made me wonder if the conveyor belt of Pakistan talent had finally seized up. Grade D

Razaullah: 92 runs at 46.0; four wickets at 46.8; one catch

I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The lad with the boyband looks from Mardan blew into the series like a hurricane, beaming smiles, 90mph on the gun and Root pinned for a maiden Test wicket. Of course, he went for a few; the kid is raw. More was to come as he teed off, sending nine sixes into the Birmingham sky to give something to his country’s long-suffering supporters and England something to think about for the first time all series. It’s easy to cite players with his backstory who soar only to crash and burn, but Pakistan need Razaullah – and so does cricket far beyond Karachi and Lahore. Grade A-

Mohammad Abbas: 86 runs at 17.2; 13 wickets at 25.4

A craftsman at work who knew, after so many seasons in England, exactly what he needed to do – and that he had the skills and temperament to do it. How he kept focus, I do not know, but every spell was at least eight out of 10 and often more. You have to think that, had he and Robinson been on opposite sides, they would have recorded each other’s figures. Grade A

Mohammad Ali: 20 runs at 20.0; eight wickets at 45.0; one catch

A tremendously entertaining player to watch, his emotions never knowingly undersold. He could propel the ball at near 90mph at times, but quite how he has so many flaws in his run-up and other basics at the age of 33 is beyond me. Grade C-

This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog