England wrap up historic 3-0 series sweep over Pakistan

“It won’t really sink in until we get home, or in the new year,” said England’s captain at the close of play. “But I understand, and we understand, that what we’ve done is pretty special. To win 3-0 out here, it will be something to be really proud of.

“When you take that burden off individuals and the team, you see players excelling and showing more within themselves. The ambition to win and play an entertaining brand of cricket, that overrides any fear of failure.”

A record-breaking series on many fronts, it has been three weeks of a statistician’s hell and heaven. It started with England scoring more runs in the opening session of a Test than any side in history, and ended with their youngest-ever Test cricketer, Rehan Ahmed, claiming a match-winning five-wicket haul.

“Everything we’ve tried has come off,” Stokes added. “I’ve learned a lot in terms of the tactical side, coming into subcontinental conditions and having to think about the game differently compared to playing in England, trying a few different things that haven’t been tried before. To be a bit out there and to see them work, that’s the best thing to come out of it.

“No one is worried about getting out. You don’t want to [be dismissed], but when that fear of failure isn’t there, you’re not tentative and you make better decisions. I remember getting out for a duck in the First Test, and Ollie Pope said, ‘You’re in a good place, aren’t you?’. You just accept getting out is part of batting. I think releasing that fear of failure is why we’ve produced results.”

It has been a methodology that has allowed the likes of Harry Brook, who is in the team as an injury replacement for Jonny Bairstow, to flourish.

“Brooky has been outstanding,” said Stokes, after the 23-year-old Yorkshireman had been announced as the player-of-the-series. “The way he has played, the way he has taken the game on, the runs he’s scored, the strike-rate he has scored at has been incredible to watch.

“He’ll be giving the selectors, and me and Baz, a migraine. So, yeah, thanks Brooky for the sore head!”

Stokes said that he could single out each England player for praise, as every member of the squad had contributed over the series. No truer was that than today, when Ben Duckett, an understated hero of the tour, struck the winning runs as he finished on 82 not out.

It was a fitting end for a player whose consistent excellence this series has been overshadowed by records being broken elsewhere. Under normal circumstances, four scores of 50 or more and an average of above 70 for an opener back in the team for the first time in six years would be headline news. Here, it has been little more than further evidence of England’s Midas touch.

Between him and Stokes, England thrashed their way to victory on the fourth morning in one final show of dominance over their hosts, with a microcosm of the past three weeks found when Stokes launched a ball towards the boundary, where Shan Masood failed to hold onto a difficult diving catch. It was an act of outright aggression that, ultimately, Pakistan could not handle. The hosts are now the fourth team to fall by the wayside against new-age England, following wins over New Zealand, India and South Africa over the summer.

It has been the most remarkable turnaround for a team who entered this era with a record of one win in 17, with the question continually being asked of when the run would come to an end with an Ashes summer looming.

“I don’t think we need to start talking about that,” Stokes said of the February tour of New Zealand and next year’s home series against Australia. “We can just talk about what we’ve done in the here and now.

“We will continue to grow as a team, spend more time out here as a unit, and keep enjoying playing cricket with a smile on our face and win as much as we can. I don’t like looking too far ahead, but I obviously have my eye on the Ashes and have got little things about that in the back of my head.”