Ben Stokes admitted England did not measure up as they crashed to a collection defeat in opposition to Pakistan however instructed there could be no scapegoats for the rout in Rawalpindi.
The vacationers had been railroaded for 112 within the second innings of the decisive third Check, with their lowest whole since Stokes took cost two-and-a-half years in the past leaving their opponents chasing simply 36.
It took Pakistan solely 19 deliveries to place England out of their distress as house skipper Shan Masood blitzed Shoaib Bashir for six to seal the deal earlier than lunch on day three.
It was all a far cry from the opening Check at the beginning of the month, an innings victory that noticed England declare with a cruel rating of 823 for seven on a flat monitor in Multan.
Within the subsequent two matches, each performed on excessive turning pitches, they scored 814 throughout 4 innings for the lack of all 40 wickets.
Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, Pakistan’s spin bowling brothers in arms, accounted for 39 of these as acquainted failings and a collection of untamed dismissals got here again to hang-out Stokes’ facet.
“Dropping video games for England hurts,” he mentioned.
“We’ve clearly underperformed as a result of we’ve misplaced the final two video games. We received thrown challenges and weren’t capable of stand as much as these challenges for lengthy sufficient to get the outcomes we wished.
“It doesn’t all the time work out the way in which through which you need. With the flexibility our batters had, we felt we had been nonetheless in with an excellent probability of profitable this sport however credit score to Noman and Sajid for the way in which they bowled. We’ve received to carry our palms up and say these two had been too good for our batting lineup.”
The make-up of that batting order is again underneath scrutiny after three defeats within the final 4 video games, together with a shock reverse by the hands of Sri Lanka on the Oval.
Ollie Pope is attracting most consideration at quantity three, having managed a threadbare 55 runs in 5 innings on tour.
He more and more resembles an all-or-nothing participant, with three superb centuries and 11 single-figure scores in an up and down 2024 that sees him common a modest 32.
Stokes, although, appeared steadfast in supporting his vice-captain.
“You possibly can’t shut the door on the whole lot, then you’re being single-minded to what you need to do, however there is no such thing as a doubt in my thoughts that now we have the very best top-six batsmen in England,” he mentioned.
“Everybody goes via highs and lows. I’ve performed plenty of cricket and I do know that
“Whenever you take very small video games or collection and use that to evaluate what you’re doing going ahead, it’s a little bit of a cut-throat approach to go about it.
“We’ve received some batsmen who’ve come off a extremely good summer time, received some a whole lot and a few good scores that allowed us to achieve success all through our English summer time.
“We’ve celebrated plenty of Popey’s particular person brilliance over final couple of years.”
England are prone to make good on these supportive phrases within the coming days, after they announce their squad for subsequent month’s Check tour of New Zealand.
Pope is nearly sure to take his place, however is in want of a powerful finish to his rollercoaster yr.
Stokes’ reverse quantity Masood was a contented man, having overseen his nation’s first collection win at house since early 2021.
“Once we performed in Multan, we had been advised that it’s not sustainable, that we are able to’t take this ahead,” he mentioned.
“I assumed the gloss was taken off a bit from our (second Check) win by folks saying that the toss was crucial. So I’m very glad we misplaced this toss and gained the match.”
READ MORE: England thrashed by Pakistan in Check collection decider
