England's third Test against Pakistan began exactly as Tuesday's preview suggested it might — with Pakistan's batting folding against the new-ball attack that has already won this series twice over. What the preview couldn't account for was the upheaval Pakistan brought to Edgbaston off the field: a completely new coaching staff, installed in the days before the toss.
Sent in to bat, Pakistan were dismissed for 133 in just 33.5 overs, extending a pattern that has now defined the entire series. Saud Shakeel was the only batter to offer sustained resistance, scoring 43 off 47 balls before becoming one of Josh Tongue's four wickets — Tongue finished with 4 for 42, while Ollie Robinson (3 for 15, at an economy of 1.36) and Jofra Archer (3 for 25) shared the rest between them. In reply, England closed the day on 156 for 4, a lead of 23 with six wickets in hand — a position of complete control that mirrors the first two Tests almost exactly.
The bigger story arrived before a ball was bowled. Following the 194-run defeat at Lord's that made the series result a formality, the Pakistan Cricket Board removed head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul from their positions. Mike Hesson, already Pakistan's white-ball head coach, stepped in to take charge of the side for the Edgbaston Test, with Australian Ashley Noffke brought in to replace Gul as bowling coach.
The coaching change had an immediate knock-on effect: selector and former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq resigned from his role in its wake, also stepping down as a batting consultant at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. Combined with the seven players already dropped from the squad after Lord's, it means Pakistan have gone into a dead-rubber Test with a substantially different coaching and playing group from the one that started the tour a month earlier.
Pacers Razaullah and Mohammad Imran Randhawa, along with wicketkeeper-batter Ghazi Ghori, all received their maiden Test caps in the reshuffled XI, continuing the selectors' pattern of using this final Test to look beyond the current series. Saim Ayub also returned to the Test side after a long absence from the format. None of the newcomers made a lasting impression with the bat on a difficult opening day, but a first Test cap against an England attack in this kind of form is as demanding an introduction to the format as it gets.
None of the off-field turmoil altered the pattern on the pitch — Pakistan's top order has now been dismantled by the same trio of England seamers in all three Tests of the series. What the coaching change does affect is the medium-term picture: Hesson and Noffke are stepping into a red-ball setup mid-series with no preparation time, which makes it hard to draw firm conclusions about team performance at Edgbaston beyond individual efforts. The more useful audition, as before, is whether any of Pakistan's newer faces show enough in this match to survive as a positive from an otherwise chastening tour.
Play at Edgbaston continues through September 13. Ball-by-ball updates are available on SportGod's live matches page, with more international cricket coverage on SportGod's blog and fantasy contests running in SportGod's free games.
Day 1 scores, bowling figures and the coaching-staff changes are verified against same-day tour coverage, current as of September 10, 2026.
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