Why did England struggle in the UAE?

Pakistan players appeal against England batsman

England’s Test match series in the UAE is over and, as many experts predicted before the series began, England lost because they struggled to adapt to conditions in the sub-continent. But, what’s so different about playing in the sub-continent? And why did England’s players struggle to adapt? In this post, we take a detailed look.

Acclimatising to Conditions and Pitches

Nowadays, very few teams win an away series, and much of this is down to the fact that teams do not prepare for a series properly. Despite arriving in the UAE with a lot of time to prepare, England only played short warm-up matches lasting two days. Due to this, they were unable to properly acclimatise to the conditions, and could not replicate the hard work required in a five day test match.

Additionally, they were unable to acclimatise to conditions in the middle. Sub-continental pitches are much more suited to spin. They disintegrate faster than English pitches and are generally slower and the bounce is lower.

Without match practice, it’s very hard to then adapt in the middle of a fiercely contested test series, thus giving Pakistan the upper hand.

Playing Spin

When playing in the sub-continent, the ability to play spin well is vital. With the pitches being slower and lower, and with conditions making it tough for pace bowlers to charge in repeatedly, most teams are reliant on their spin bowlers.

In addition, with pitches deteriorating and cracking as the matches progress, spin plays an important role in controlling the outcome of matches.

However, in spite of having two of the better players of spin in the world in Alistair Cook and Joe Root, England failed to ‘milk’ the spinners sufficiently, as they allowed themselves to get tied up and played false shots due to scoreboard pressure.

Batting against spin wasn’t England’s only spin related problem, however, and their spin bowling was nowhere near good enough.

Adil Rashid’s excellent five-for in the final innings of the first test was a one-off and despite the fact that he worked with Shane Warne before the final test, his bowling was largely ineffective, leading to more of a reliance on Moeen Ali and Samit Patel, both of whom are not frontline, wicket-taking spinners.

How Can England Rectify This?

Unfortunately, at the moment, England simply aren’t producing enough quality spin bowlers, and this is largely down to a failure of coaching at younger age groups, with coaches simply not encouraging the bowling of spin.

With spin bowling training equipment available widely online, there really is no excuse for England not bringing through top-quality spin bowlers. Only when this happens will England be able to compete in the sub-continent, lessening the work of the quicks and making best use of the pitches on the final days.

When Pakistan come over to England next year, it’s likely England will win in home conditions, showing the difference the climate, the pitch and the effectiveness of spin play over in English conditions.