Ben Stokes admitted England did not measure up as they crashed to a sequence defeat towards Pakistan however urged 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 Take a look at, with their lowest complete 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 residence 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 Take a look at initially 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 sequence of untamed dismissals got here again to hang-out Stokes’ aspect.
“Shedding video games for England hurts,” he mentioned.
“We’ve clearly underperformed as a result of we’ve misplaced the final two video games. We acquired thrown challenges and weren’t capable of stand as much as these challenges for lengthy sufficient to get the outcomes we needed.
“It doesn’t all the time work out the best way by which you need. With the power our batters had, we felt we had been nonetheless in with an excellent likelihood of successful this sport however credit score to Noman and Sajid for the best way they bowled. We’ve acquired to carry our fingers 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’ll be able to’t shut the door on every thing, then you might be being single-minded to what you need to do, however there isn’t any doubt in my thoughts that we now have the very best top-six batsmen in England,” he mentioned.
“Everybody goes by highs and lows. I’ve performed a whole lot of cricket and I do know that
“Once you take very small video games or sequence and use that to evaluate what you’re doing going ahead, it’s a little bit of a cut-throat technique to go about it.
“We’ve acquired some batsmen who’ve come off a extremely good summer season, acquired some a whole lot and a few good scores that allowed us to achieve success all through our English summer season.
“We’ve celebrated a whole lot of Popey’s particular person brilliance over final couple of years.”
England are more likely to make good on these supportive phrases within the coming days, once they announce their squad for subsequent month’s Take a look at 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 sequence win at residence since early 2021.
“Once we performed in Multan, we had been informed that it’s not sustainable, that we are able to’t take this ahead,” he mentioned.
“I believed the gloss was taken off a bit from our (second Take a look at) win by individuals saying that the toss was essential. So I’m very happy we misplaced this toss and received the match.”
READ MORE: England thrashed by Pakistan in Take a look at sequence decider
