Dubai: Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq finds himself groping for answers after his team's latest one-day defeat in the same way Andrew Strauss was clueless about the reasons behind England's performance in the Test series.
Homesickness could be behind it, Misbah feels, as despite his team being the official hosts, the reality is they have played series after series away from Pakistan.
"I feel the fact that we are playing away from home can be a factor," he said.
"Sometimes homesickness could also be a factor as we are not playing at home.
"Conditions and many things are different here.
"I am not giving an excuse here but to beat England we have to play good cricket.
"The way they have come back, they have totally outclassed us in all the three matches.
"They have played much better cricket than us in all three departments. They produced disciplined bowling and batting.
"Their fielding was also better than us.
"Due to all these reasons they won all the three matches."
Misbah gave a frank response when asked how his team had lost despite getting the chance to bat first on a decent track at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
"England played much better cricket than us," he said.
"Conditions were very tough for our bowling while England produced very disciplined bowling to restrict us.
Dramatic improvement
"They used the new and the old ball very well. We were simply restricted to a small total and after that they batted really well."
After struggling against the Pakistan attack, particularly the spinners, during the Tests, England have improved dramatically in the one-day series.
Misbah puts this down to time at the crease.
"It is a known fact that when a team comes to play in different conditions it will be difficult for them at the start," he said.
"England kept playing our spinners and have got a bit used to them now and that is why they are improving day by day. The way they are getting runs has made them confident too.
"England attained the No 1 slot through consistent performance. So as a No 1 team they were expected to stage a comeback any time.
"Despite losing the Test series 3-0 they have worked hard and sorted their problems with spin.
"A look at their batting reveals that they have lost only about five wickets in all the three matches.
"In our case none of our batsmen has made a big score nor capitalised on a good start."
Misbah expects another tough examination in the Twenty20 matches.
"We will have to learn quickly from the mistakes especially in our batting," he said.
