Former England captain Nasser Hussain reflects on England’s 2-1 series defeat to Pakistan and the top order’s struggles against spin, saying Ben Stokes’ side must learn from their failures and not just focus on next year’s Ashes.
Congratulations to Pakistan.
They were going nowhere after losing the first Test – a sixth in a row, all of them with Shan Masood as captain. They made a drastic change: new selectors, different pitches completely, making it turn… and they found the kryptonite to Bazball.
It has exposed England when the ball spins – they are very vulnerable – and Pakistan have jumped on that and won the series.
When it spins and it’s gripping, England don’t play spin as well as Pakistan, and their spinners don’t bowl it as well, either.
Pakistan, meanwhile, have found spinners that are absolutely of the highest quality in Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, and they have batters that play spin really well. So why wouldn’t you play on turning pitches?
Because the pitches were so different from the first Test to the second and third, there’s no doubting that scores should go down and wickets for spinners should go up, but the discrepancy in the England side is a concern.
It shouldn’t be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line, but then the moment it grips and you can’t play like that, you’re then a little bit lost.
And three of their top six seem to be lost in these conditions. I’m talking about Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, who has hard hands, or Stokes in Asia. His last 10 scores are very low in these conditions, and he used to be one of our best players of spin.
And on the spinners; Shoaib Bashir, at the moment, it’s an unfair comparison, but Jack Leach must look at Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Noman Ali and look at his changes of pace, and his beautiful, subtle variations – the way he out-thinks batters and deceives them in the air before it lands.
With Leach, year after year, over after over, ball after ball, he bowls it at the same pace and thinks the wicket will do the rest.
Within that side, I want to see a bit more learning. It can’t just be ‘that’s the way we play’. I want to see more learning and improvement when the pitches turn.
There’s never an over-reaction from this team. This is only the second series they’ve lost with the Bazball set up… in India and here, and that can’t just be coincidence.
It’s all well and good saying that last time they were here, in 2022, they got 500 in a day, won the series 3-0 and then got 800 in the first Test – they were completely different conditions and pitches to this.
All we ever hear about with England is The Ashes, away (in 2025). But we play so many series before The Ashes, and conditions here are so different from Australia.
Someone like Zak Crawley, his position should come under threat, but when I say that, people say ‘well, I think he’ll be alright in Australia’. That doesn’t matter here, this month. How are you going to play this month?
How are you going to be consistent in these conditions? The same with Ollie Pope… it can’t always be feast or famine with him.
It can’t just be about one series (The Ashes) every four years, away from home. You’re almost not taking Pakistan seriously.
Mistakes happen. That’s part of sport. It’s not about knocking the mistakes, because then you put fear in your side.
That’s why Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes speak the way they do… they don’t want to knock their players and hit their confidence because that makes a fearful side, but the flip side of that is you have to learn.
That’s what fans want to know, ‘are you learning, are you improving?’ That’s what I’m interested in and all you can ask of a team.
What’s next for England?
England’s white-ball side head to the West Indies for three one-day internationals and a five-match T20 series, with the ODIs set to start in Antigua on Thursday, October 31.
As for Stokes’ Test team, they’re next in action in New Zealand for a three-match tour that begins in Christchurch on Thursday, November 28.
Pakistan vs England Test series
First Test: Multan – England won by an innings and 47 runs
Second Test: Multan – Pakistan won by 152 runs
Third Test: Rawalpindi – Pakistan won by nine wickets
