England captain Andrew Strauss stressed a 3-0 hammering inflicted by Pakistan was not all doom and gloom for his team, hoping they learn from their mistakes and move on.
Pakistan thumped England by 71 runs in the third and final Test on Monday to seal an emphatic 3-0 win — the first whitewash in all Tests between the two countries.
Strauss, under whom England had not lost a Test series since their 1-0 defeat in the Caribbean in February 2009, said analysis should be following on the team’s defeat.
“It’s very important we debrief this tour very thoroughly, like we do on any tour and learn some lessons and don’t walk away if that’s staring at us in the face. But at the same time it’s not all doom and gloom, you don’t become a bad side overnight,” Strauss said after the defeat.
England, who rose to number one in Test rankings in August last year after winning their last six series, continued to struggle in Asian conditions with Pakistani spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman destroying them in the series.
Top scorer
Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal took 24 wickets while Rehman finished with 19.
For England, Jonathan Trott remained top scorer in the series with 161 with Alastair Cook 159 and wicket-keeper batsman Matt Prior finishing at 150.
Strauss also managed 150 but key batsmen Kevin Pietersen (67), Ian Bell (51) and Eoin Morgan (82) were major let downs.
Strauss admitted playing spinners on turning pitches was a different challenge.
“Obviously, the challenges here are different, English sides generally have not played well in these sort of conditions in the past, we need to break that tradition and we are not going to do that by doing the same things,” said Strauss.
Soul searching
England also have tours to Sri Lanka (April) and India (November) this year and Strauss hoped the batsmen learn fast.
“I have not been involved in any series where so many of our batsmen have had hard times as this one. We have all got some questions to answer individually, some soul searching and thoughts to put into on how we can do things better going forward.
“It is also important for the guys to start turning their attention towards Sri Lanka in the particular challenges. There may not be the same challenges as here, but they will be slightly different in terms of the conditions etc., so we need to learn lessons from this.
“If you are a good enough player you find a way, it may take you a week or so finding a way you don’t make the same mistakes again. We haven’t been good enough or quick enough to adapting our game, that’s for sure,” Strauss said.
Pakistan and England will now play four-match one-day, starting with the first in Abu Dhabi on February 13. That will be followed by three Twenty20 internationals. — AFP