Ben Stokes admitted England failed to measure up as they crashed to a series defeat against Pakistan but suggested there would be no scapegoats for the rout in Rawalpindi.
The tourists were railroaded for 112 in the second innings of the decisive third Test, with their lowest total since Stokes took charge two-and-a-half years ago leaving their opponents chasing just 36.
It took Pakistan only 19 deliveries to put England out of their misery as home skipper Shan Masood blitzed Shoaib Bashir for six to seal the deal before lunch on day three.
It was all a far cry from the opening Test at the start of the month, an innings victory that saw England declare with a merciless score of 823 for seven on a flat track in Multan.
In the next two matches, both played on extreme turning pitches, they scored 814 across four innings for the loss of all 40 wickets.
Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, Pakistan’s spin bowling brothers in arms, accounted for 39 of those as familiar failings and a series of wild dismissals came back to haunt Stokes’ side.
“Losing games for England hurts,” he said.
“We’ve obviously underperformed because we’ve lost the last two games. We got thrown challenges and weren’t able to stand up to those challenges for long enough to get the results we wanted.
“It doesn’t always work out the way in which you want. With the ability our batters had, we felt we were still in with a very good chance of winning this game but credit to Noman and Sajid for the way they bowled. We’ve got to hold our hands up and say those two were too good for our batting lineup.”
The make-up of that batting order is back under scrutiny after three defeats in the last four games, including a shock reverse at the hands of Sri Lanka at the Oval.
Ollie Pope is attracting most attention at number three, having managed a threadbare 55 runs in five innings on tour.
He increasingly resembles an all-or-nothing player, with three fine centuries and 11 single-figure scores in an up and down 2024 that sees him average a modest 32.
Stokes, though, appeared steadfast in supporting his vice-captain.
“You can’t shut the door on everything, then you are being single-minded to what you want to do, but there is no doubt in my mind that we have the best top-six batsmen in England,” he said.
“Everyone goes through highs and lows. I’ve played a lot of cricket and I know that
“When you take very small games or series and use that to assess what you’re doing going forward, it’s a bit of a cut-throat way to go about it.
“We’ve got some batsmen who’ve come off a really good summer, got some hundreds and some good scores that allowed us to be successful throughout our English summer.
“We’ve celebrated a lot of Popey’s individual brilliance over last couple of years.”
England are likely to make good on those supportive words in the coming days, when they announce their squad for next month’s Test tour of New Zealand.
Pope is virtually certain to take his place, but is in need of a strong end to his rollercoaster year.
Stokes’ opposite number Masood was a contented man, having overseen his country’s first series win at home since early 2021.
“When we played in Multan, we were told that it’s not sustainable, that we can’t take this forward,” he said.
“I thought the gloss was taken off a bit from our (second Test) win by people saying that the toss was very important. So I’m very satisfied we lost this toss and won the match.”