Playing with Vaughany, spin with Warnie
Our correspondent rubs shoulders with the stars, and soaks up the desert sun of the UAE

The ICC and media players line up • Andrew McGlashan/ESPNcricinfo
First full day on tour. Head down to the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi to watch training. It's hot, but apparently already cooler than the first few days, when the team and colleagues arrived. Players say they had never felt temperatures like in Sharjah, where the warm-up matches were played. The spaceship-style stadium at the ground provides welcome shade as England go through a high-intensity training session. England's batsmen have promised to stay true to themselves and play positively; during nets they repeatedly ping balls over the boundary towards the watching press. I'm sure it isn't intentional.
Yasir Shah skips in to bowl during Pakistan's nets session. Next thing, he's in a heap at the crease. Then he's helped off the ground. It doesn't look good. What a moment this could be. Nervous, worried looks from the Pakistan camp. Misbah-ul-Haq is uneasy at his press conference. They have no back-up spinner.
The record books are thumbed as Adil Rashid toils and toils. He finishes with none for 163, the most expensive figures by a Test debutant, overtaking another legspinner - Australia's Bryce McGain. There is one moment when a shot is chipped just over mid-off that Rashid almost goes to his knees in the bowling crease.
As the Test match continues on a flat pitch, games pop up around the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, on concrete pitches that offer more bounce than the one we are watching. At lunch I decide to wander over and see who is playing. My goodness, it brings home the heat of the day - just a ten-minute stroll and you are melting. How does Alastair Cook do it?
Nailed-on dull draw, surely? Maybe not, then. When England declare with a lead of 75, it feels like a token effort to put some pressure on Pakistan. But Rashid bags five to leave 99 needed in 19 overs. However, the light is already fading. They will never get the overs in. Sure enough, after 11, the umpires come together and the players walk off. It's unsatisfactory, but it later emerges the captains were given the chance to keep playing and they declined. The day-night experiment can't come soon enough. Cricket must stop being so insular.
A very relaxed press chat with England coach Trevor Bayliss the morning after the dramatic finish. Then it's on the road to Dubai - no need for internal flights on this tour - in time for the biggest contest of the trip: the Media v ICC cricket match.
It's strange what you can stumble across during a tour. Invited to a launch event for the Masters Champions League (it's clearly in vogue for players to come out of retirement), I happen on what turns out to be quite a big story. One of the rules of participating in the MCL is that a player has to have retired from all three international formats. Sat at the top table is Virender Sehwag. An early question to him is along the lines of, "You haven't retired from international cricket yet." He responds with, "I will, to play in the MCL." It appears Sehwag has just retired. A tweet (not entirely innocent, I'll admit) is followed by some frenzied activity on the timeline, followed by a call from the ESPNcricinfo Bangalore office. It all makes me chuckle; the guy hasn't played for India in two and a half years and is a day shy of 37. Semantics then play a part in whether he actually has retired, before a video interview confirms it, although the actual announcement will come in India. I only came for the food and music.
Entertained at the British consulate as part of an event to welcome the England team to town. The players are in attendance and very relaxed; it's a noticeable change over the last six months. Interesting chatting with some of the expats about life in Dubai - the place splits opinion, but there seem to be plenty of perks to living overseas.
More final-session drama when it did not appear likely. This time England are eight down at tea, but get within seven overs of saving the game. Rashid is almost the hero (again) only to drive to cover, having played superbly for nearly four hours. Not the fifth-day impact people talk about for a legspinner.
Bayliss reflects on England's almost-great escape in Dubai. As ever, he is honest and straightforward with his answers. Wonder how he was able to keep his emotions in check when the middle order was playing a few of those shots on the third morning which cost England the game.
It's always fun to visit a ground for the first time. This is my first look at Sharjah, one of the game's most storied venues. A world away from Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but wonderful for it. Close your eyes and you can almost hear the roars as Sachin belts another boundary or Wasim uproots another stump.
Warne is good value as he speaks after a training session with Rashid - to follow one with Yasir - but you wonder whether the hyperbole has gone a little too far when he says Rashid has as good a legbreak as there is. Still, if some of that confidence from Warne rubs off on Rashid, English cricket will be well served.
Sit in on a second international retirement in two weeks, as Shoaib Malik surprisingly calls it quits in Test cricket two Tests after making 245. As he repeats the fact about having a five-year gap in his Test career, you can't help but feel he just wanted the chance to show he could still do it, although scores after his double - 0, 2, 7, 38, and a first-ball duck - tend to sum up his career. As England strive to stay in the series, Malik's reprieve on 40, when Stuart Broad overstepped in Abu Dhabi, now looks even more pivotal.
No final session, fifth-day drama this time. England barely made it past lunch, spun out by Yasir, Zulfiqar Babar and Malik. A brief reminder of 2012, but this has been a much improved performance by England although plenty of holes remain in the team. It's a delight to see Pakistan win again. However cynical you want to be about rankings, moving up to No. 2 in the world is a wonderful achievement. Maybe one day there will be a chance to cover a series in Pakistan. For now, they remain a force in a home away from home.
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo