England's familiar achilles heel

Mike Selvey writes in the Observer that England's old failings against spin has already put their top ranking in jeopardy. He also looks at what changes England's batsmen made in their bid to counter Pakistan's trio of twirlers.

Andrew Strauss, who for much of his innings stayed on the back foot and scored in his habitual areas square. Others, such as Kevin Pietersen, strive to use their height and get forward, knowing that the pace at which Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal can bowl can catch batsmen all too readily on the back foot. Essentially, though, where pad play was once an integral part of technique against spin, the ball has to be played with the bat.

In The National Osman Samiuddin turns to Sufi theories and bad jokes as he tries to make sense of Pakistan's logic defying victory.

These are perfectly sensible explanations but I prefer one that draws from Sufism (and this may sound overblown at first and probably is even on reflection but we will stick with it). In these moments, they enter a state of Haal, a kind of temporary state of a different consciousness to the state normally inhabited.

They walk and act differently, with greater urgency and settle upon some central figures around whom they all whir in unison towards one central purpose.

In his column in the Mail on Sunday, James Anderson sums up how England are feeling.

The over-riding feeling was one of shock. Shock that we'd allowed a winning position to slip away so easily and shock that we'd allowed a pressure situation to get the better of us.

An editorial in the Express Tribune says that with this series win over the world's top-ranked side, Misbah-ul-Haq "now deserves to be elevated to the pantheon of great Pakistani captains".

In the Sunday Telegraph, Michael Vaughan says teams can't expect to win when only two of their top six batsmen are playing with confidence, and has some advice on how to tackle spin.

The best players of spin have the ability to score 360 degrees of the ground.

At the moment England have too many players who can only hit through 90 degrees. It makes it easier for Pakistan to defend the boundary leaving England with not enough options to take the pressure off.

England need to look at the way Misbah-ul-Haq plays the spinners. He plants his front foot down and either plays through extra cover or hits over the top. Unless you are a brilliant sweeper, that is the way to play.