Dav Whatmore looks forward to the test series

Losing the Asia Cup final in Dhaka was very disappointing because this tournament is very important within the region and is a highly sought after trophy. We played pretty well at the start of the tournament but went off the boil a bit and paid the penalty.

It is hard to put a finger on exactly why we lost the final but there were a couple of very unusual things that happened in both the games against Pakistan. The first was our inability to run between the wickets and that resulted in five run outs. There are enough ways to get out in cricket without running yourself out.

Nevertheless we still had a chance to redeem ourselves in the final but low and behold we put in a performance in the field that was totally foreign to our normal standards. I think there were something like eight catches dropped by us in the match. All of them may not have been easy but it's a difficult game and you have to take those half chances if you are give yourselves a reasonable chance of reaching winning.

Not only did we fail to hold our catches but we also failed to bowl yorker length deliveries late in the game when the Pakistanis were swinging. They hit very well and took the game away from us.

Despite that we put up a fight and as in any tournament there were always positives that come out of it. I was very please to see Kaushalya Weereratne, who had been given his first opportunity to play in an international tournament, react so well to the pressure. He showed everyone that he had that grasp over pressure, which you need if you are to succeed in international cricket.

It also gave us a very good indication of the way in which Pakistan are approaching their cricket at the moment. With the test series ahead of us in Sri Lanka, and despite it being a different game, it was a good insight into the level of tenacity that the team now has and what we can expect over the next few weeks.

We played Pakistan in Feburary and March and won the series but they are definitely playing more as a team now and hence are playing much better cricket. We have to be wary of that.

When the series starts we will be looking to get an advantage as soon as possible. It's so vital to secure an early advantage against any side that you face. It doesn't necessarily mean winning the test match, it could be a winning draw. What is important is that we are very competitive in all of those five days. By doing this we may be able to get a small advantage over the Paksitanis. This is our first objective.

The team knows that they are rated one of the top three teams in the world but we also know that we have to improve on that. We can do this by working on some of our weaknesses in Dhaka. The format of the game might be different but the important disciplines remain the same, whether you are playing a one day match or test match.

We have thus identified our fielding as an extremely important area of our game in this series. If we can achieve the kind of standards to which we aspire then we will put the Pakistanis under pressure and could grasp that early advantage.

Pakistan have a very good pace attack, there is no question about that. Wasim Akram needs two further wickets to reach the 400 mark. We know that he is a tiger and will come out roaring in this series. If we can work hard to keep him out of the game as much as possible, then that will go along way to nullifying the opposition.

There is a feeling of confidence in the side at the moment but we need to focus on the couple of areas in which we were deficient during the Asia Cup. If we can do that with our natural talent then I am sure that we will be very competitive.