Pakistan complete 3-0 whitewash against England

This may not be sweet music to the ears of Team India, who have trained selectively on the tour of Australia. but looku00a0whatu00a0England coachu00a0Andy Flower said after their 0-3 loss tou00a0Pakistan yesterday...u00a0

After the team's 0-3 defeat to Pakistan, England team director Andy Flower admitted England were simply not ready to take on the Asian side. Pakistan clinched a 71-run win to end a forgettable tour for the No 1 Test side. "I don't think our commitment and our hunger to win has been down," Flower told Sky Sports 1. "But (we spent a) couple of months out of the game and not doing a lot while Pakistan were beating Sri Lanka and working hard to beat Bangladesh and that hardened them for this contest.


Pakistan's cricketers celebrate after winning the third and final Test
against England in Dubai yesterday. Pic/AFP

"Looking back now I don't think we were ready. I shoulder that side of the blame because it was my decision to give them that time off. We won't let that happen again. During that rest time our team and support staff were all being lauded and while that was happening Pakistan were working hard at their game and beating international teams. Consequently one side was sharp and ready and one side wasn't.


Andy Flower Pic/AFP

Flower's hard talk didn't end there. "We do have a lot of faith in our players and that faith has been justified over a long period of time. But we've obviously under performed here badly. I've been surprised by how poorly we've batted out there.

"A number of our big players have under-performed in this series. It was the first time that so many of our established Test crickets were out of runs and not feeling as confident as they usually do and not as clear in their method as they usually are. Kevin (Pietersen) was one of those." The classy Pietersen scored only 67 in six innings.

Skipper Andrew Strauss was dejected. "There are some regrets from the batsmen, about the way we played their spinners, more regrets of how we played in the first Test because that set the tone for the rest of the series," said Strauss. Pakistan's spinner Saeed Ajmal claimed 24 wickets in the series.

The whitewash...
'u00a01st Test, January 17-19
England 192 & 160
Pakistan 338 & 15
Pakistan won by 10 wickets

' 2nd Test, January 25-28
Pakistan 257 & 214
England 327 & 72.
Pakistan won by 72 runs

' 3rd Test, February 3-6
Pakistan 99 & 365
England 141 & 252
Pakistan won by 71 runs