Pakistan’s win ensured they would share the series 2-2 with England and gives them a chance of being ranked the No. 1 Test side, depending on results in Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
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Had England beaten Pakistan and results from India’s tour of the Caribbean gone their way, Cook’s outfit would have hit the summit of the Test world rankings for the first time since 2012.
With a round of championship matches ending on Tuesday, England will be practising for their first one-day worldwide against Pakistan by the time the competition resumes – leaving, conceivably, a brief chance in mid-September for Bayliss to appraise himself in person of the plausible contenders.
On Monday the Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq followed him into the umpire’s bad books by being fined 20% of his match fee for his team’s slow over rate at The Oval, that coming after Stuart Broad was fined during £2,000 for an unwelcome tweet about Hales’s dismissal.
The 42-year-old, who has been a key figure in their resurgence especially in the longer format of the game, feels that it is a remarkable record considering they have not played at home since 2009. But just living every day away from our country, without family and friends, it’s really hard. It’s really hard, it’s mentally tough.
“It’s mentally tough – I only see my mother and sister once a year, some friends not for three or four years”.
“We’ve given everyone a pretty fair go”, he told BBC’s Test Match Special.
England resumed in trouble at 88 for four, 126 runs adrift.
“I think I heard Cookie say the two or three guys we’ve got in the team have been very good players over the last two or three years, experienced players at county level, and they have found it tough to jump up to this level”.
While they were winning series as they did against South Africa in the winter and Sri Lanka earlier this summer, the top six was a problem that could be put on the back burner.
It is an unsustainable collective shortfall for a Test team with aspirations to top the world rankings.
Hales has yet to score a century in 11 Tests and has an average of 27.
“Over this summer we haven’t scored enough runs at the top of the order”, said Cook.
“Until they get back and have made their report, there’s absolutely nothing for us to decide at the moment”.
Leg-spinner Yasir took five wickets for 71 runs as England, in their second innings, slumped to 253 all out, setting Pakistan a target of 40 runs.
Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who took his third five-wicket haul of the series, said that the partnership between Marsh and Smith shows that the team is slowly coming to terms with the Asian conditions.
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“He’s not a Yasir Shah and he probably never will be. We’re a work in progress”.
