Flower doubts ability to pass trial

London: Blame for England's first series defeat since the Andocracy of Strauss and Flower was officially formed has been laid firmly at the feet of the batsmen.

Caught cold in the first Test, they at least competed in Abu Dhabi until faced with chasing 145 on a pitch suiting spin.

Yet they flunked that so badly, being dismissed for 72, that Andy Flower has questioned whether some have it in them ever to flourish against spin in Asian conditions, in which they have two more series before the year's end.

"With the third Test and one-day series played in similar conditions, and then series in Sri Lanka and India, the challenge ahead of us is not going to go away," Flower, the England coach, said.

"I think it's up for debate on the batting front whether players have the skills to cope in Asia. What I do know is they're an excellent bunch of cricketers and men and I expect us to work it out and play better than we are."

Flower was brilliant against spin, playing the majority of his Tests for Zimbabwe in the subcontinent. England's batsmen will have not lacked for his input or that of Graham Gooch, the batting coach and another fine player of the twirly stuff, but Flower knows improvements are unlikely to come from just hard work or a surge in confidence and, for many, a change of tack is needed, especially now the Decision Review System has made the front pad such a liability.

"I think some of the batsmen do have to rethink their strategies against spin," Flower said. "It's very tricky doing it mid-series and it's very tricky doing it mid-career, but there's no getting away from the fact that some of the methods we've employed over the first two Tests haven't worked. One of the most important skills of an international sportsman is being able to adapt and adapt quickly."

Many believe England's second innings choke in Abu Dhabi was a failure of approach rather than skill, but actually one fed the other. Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss bat at similar tempos and, while that has done England proud for the majority of their 101 innings together, their dedication to occupation rather than domination set the tone for a run chase that ended up like Morse code, comprising as it did too many dots before the odd, ill-judged, dash.

"Playing spin here is completely different to playing it at home or in Australia," Flower said.

"Their bowlers put us under pressure but we didn't reverse it and put them under pressure. That was fairly obvious, and it was a combination of us not being skilful enough and not handling the pressure well enough."

Shot in anger

Jonathan Trott's absence at No 3, due to a tummy bug that has been doing the rounds with the recently arrived families, did not help matters as it exposed the out-of-form Ian Bell, one third of an out-of-sorts middle-order, just as Pakistan's spinners were finding their bite.

With Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan looking bereft against spin since the warm-up matches, the conditions for a crisis were sown and England's trio of aggressors had gone within the space of 24 balls before they had a chance to play a shot in anger.

Flower would not discuss selection, other than to confirm England would not shy away from change if it was felt necessary, but Pietersen, Bell and Morgan must come under scrutiny before the next Test. Not all can be replaced, as there are not enough reserves on tour, but Morgan will surely make way for Ravi Bopara, after the former's two horror dismissals in that last game.

Morgan is a fine one-day batsman, but if he is to transfer those skills successfully to the Test arena, he must learn that you do not have to put bat to ball every delivery. If his second-ball dismissal in the second innings in Abu Dhabi was foolhardy, giving himself room to force Abdul Rahman's left-arm spin into the rough though the covers, his downfall in the first innings, when he edged a ball he could have left alone in the final over of the day, was crushingly naive. Flower believes there is enough time before the next Test to make a difference, but whatever they work on will have to be done without Gooch, who due to the part-time nature of his contract, returned home along with Mark Bawden, the sports psychologist, on the first day of the last Test.

Without Gooch, the batsmen will probably do more work with Ben Langley, the physio who can "throw" a doosra. One thing that probably will not happen is the batsmen starting to using their feet to leave the crease. Abdul Rahman and Saeed Ajmal bowl at just under 60mph, which is a bit quick to start charging down the pitch to.

— The Telegraph Group Ltd, London 2012