PAK vs ENG, 3rd Test, 3rd Day – “No excuses,” says Brendon McCullum as England succumb to Pakistan’s economic spiral

“That’s life,” McCullum told Sky Sports after England’s nine-wicket defeat. “We obviously gave up the chance to win the series. We performed well throughout and ultimately left the game disappointed but also very appreciative of Pakistan's performance. But we know within ourselves that we had the opportunity to do better than that and we're a little disappointed about that.

“Kudos to Pakistan, the way those two spinners bowled was great,” McCullum said after Noman and Sajid combined to defeat England for 112 in their second innings in Rawalpindi.

“I thought they varied the tempo wonderfully. Noman from one end who picked up the pace most of the time with occasional quick hits and Sajid who turned that around and picked up the pace with occasional slow hits. I thought it was great partnership bowling. “Unfortunately, our boys couldn’t withstand the pressure.”

When asked if he was happy with the extreme measures Pakistan have taken to get their spinners into the series, including the seemingly unprecedented re-use of the first Test pitch in Multan and raking the Rawalpindi surface to accommodate the turn offer McCullum said he welcomed the initiative they had shown.

“Honestly, I kind of like it,” he said. “They were brave enough to make decisions about their personnel and they were brave enough to make decisions about the surfaces they wanted to play on.”

“When teams come to England, ideally we play on the surfaces we are used to so that our strengths can be showcased and perhaps cover up some of the weaknesses that each team naturally has.”

“I'm a little surprised it took Pakistan so long. Because when you travel to Sri Lanka, India or Bangladesh, the ball will always be spinning. What we had here a few years ago, or back then.” The first Test match, where it was quite flat, was a different challenge. It will be interesting to see if they continue this type of service in the next few years, but from our perspective there are certainly no excuses. We had our chances and came second.

Although McCullum remained magnanimous, he acknowledged the series defeat would intensify the spotlight on his team. Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley fell well short of expectations in the more extreme conditions, while Brook hit a top score of 26 in his last four innings on the tour, having hit four centuries and a fifty in his last six innings in the country.

“It's pretty much the same batting line-up that came here two years ago and was excellent in these conditions and it's the same batting line-up that hit 800 in the first Test match,” McCullum said. “As conditions changed, we were presented with different challenges and we were not fully able to adapt to those challenges. And that’s a missed opportunity.”

“I have no doubt, and the captain has no doubt, that the batting line-up we have had together for almost 18 months now is the best we have,” he added. “We are very confident, we just need to make sure we continue to allow the boys to develop and continue to become the players they want to become and we will benefit from that.”

The focus will also be on England's spinners, particularly Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach, whose direct counterparts Sajid and Noman exploited the conditions much more successfully in the last two Tests. Bashir, whose selection for the India tour was based more on his natural attributes than a proven record in first-class cricket, has now bowled more overs than any other player in 2024, but his nine-wicket series haul of 49.66 pales in comparison Comparison to Sajid's 19 on October 21st.

“(Sajid and Noman) were brilliant in the way they bowled together and they challenged in different ways and at the speeds they used,” McCullum said. “Could we have been better? Yes, of course, right? Every time you lose a test or a series you have to have this period of reflection. And that's what we're going to do and say, right, next time we're going to face similar conditions? What do we have to do? Do we need to adapt our tactics more, right? Batsman gets out.

“You're always trying to improve, but you have to be really careful not to strive for perfection because in an inconsistent game that doesn't exist. The game we're playing will have phases where that's not the case. “It goes the way you want it to, but you still have to stand firm.

“At some point in the future we're going to be faced with spin conditions, and we're hoping that some of the good and bad lessons that we've learned in this series will give us a little bit more, a little bit more basis to be successful can.”