And so to the National Stadium in Karachi, already etched in English cricket folklore as the scene of the miracle in the dark and one where, 22 years on from Graham Thorpe squirting the winning runs off Saqlain Mushtaq after sunset, they pitch up with the comfort of it being a series already won.
Over the past fortnight they have played imaginative, dynamic cricket and met the dual challenges of off-field illness and unresponsive pitches with a remarkable sense of optimism not always seen in the past. All that remains for Ben Stokes and his team in the third Test that starts on Saturday is whether they can record a ninth victory of this transformative year and with it a first 3-0 victory on Pakistan soil.
