England cannot afford backward steps, Hussain says

The Faislabad Test match starts tomorrow with neither side billed as strong favourites - or underdogs - after England's promising performance in the first meeting with Pakistan at Lahore.

All eyes are now on the tourists to see whether the draw was a one-off achievement or whether the tourists really are on the road to consistency, an objective that coach Duncan Fletcher has set to bring England up to the standard created by Australia and South Africa.

On this Pakistan tour, England have surprised many commentators with some impressive performances in all cricket and apart from the two one-day internationals have remained unbeaten.

This increased confidence and continuity was demonstrated in the last Test when they carefully negotiated the flight and bounce of Pakistan's world-class spin attack and for two and a half days fended off all attempts to take control.

A similar level of patience and skill will be required at Faislabad in a match that is likely to decide the series.

"The cricket we've played in general out here has been very good and it has continued on from the summer so we seem to be progressing," said Hussain.

"Psychological lifts come from progression, when you think you're playing good cricket and start believing in each other and people like Craig White and Matthew Hoggard make contributions.

"We will get knock backs and there will be certain bad days like one or two of the one-dayers, but the general progress seems to be there and we have to make sure that in the next 10 days cricket that we don't take too many backward steps.

"This is a very talented bunch of lads we're up against. They are used to these sort of wickets and will know all the tricks of the trade and we have to keep up with them.

"We did well in the last Test, but we have to stick with it and keep doing it and that is why we must not at any stage think we have solved the game.

"We can't turn up for the Test tomorrow still patting ourselves on the back for the last match because we will get blown away out here if we do that."