They deserved the series win, but talk about creating surfaces that only benefit their spinners. This is the reason they fail to beat anyone outside of Pakistan.
The 2nd test was played on the exact same wicket as the 1st test, dust bowl, and the 3rd test looked like that wicket had been played on multiple times. Not 1 ball bowled by a pace bowler from Pakistan in the 3rd test, says everything you need to know about the wicket.
Certainly benefits them to win a series, but does it really benefit them long term? I doubt it.
The pitches were spin-friendly but far from diabolical. Australia plays on worse whenever India desperately needs to beat us. And in Sri Lanka. The English techniques and temperaments just emphatically failed the test.
Bazball needs flat decks so players can swing through the line confident there'll be no deviation. And what do you know, English Test pitches are suddenly roads. In those conditions Bazball is great and entertaining and puts the opposition on the back foot, but in testing conditions requiring sound technique, fierce concentration and mental application for long periods, the Poms just didn't want to do it. They tried to hit their way out of trouble instead of digging in and playing the kind of subcontinental innings we've seen from Khawaja for example over the last few years. Patience, backing your defence, selling your wicket dearly and being prepared to bat long.
A few blokes exposed. Crawley, for every dominant innings that takes the game away from the opposition there are half a dozen failures. Hence after 50 Tests he averages just under 32. Pope's similar - too many failures and averages 33 after 52 Tests. He's only 26 so has plenty of time to improve that but he needs to. Stokes averages 26 in Asia, in 27 Tests. And with 11 wickets in his past 21 Tests, can we really call him an all-rounder any more? At 33 are his days of meaningful contributions with the ball done? Jamie Smith can belt some runs but made some costly misses behind the stumps.
On the bright side Bashir and Rehan are highly promising young spinners. I think Rehan will do well in Australia, and I actually think England should do well given the good pitches they will get. If they have Wood and Archer fit and firing, Atkinson continues his bright start and Rehan is backed in, that's a pretty good attack for Australian conditions. It will then be a question of if the batting stands up in Australia for the first time since 2010/11 (can you believe England has not won a single Test match in Australia since then!). Australia might not have won the Ashes in England since 2001 (who would have thought that back then!) but we win at least one Test every time (and were robbed in 2019).
Anyhoo, onto this summer. Going to be interesting to see who gets the opening spot for Australia. Looks like it's either Konstas or McSweeney - I'd back the latter if I had to guess, but Konstas is a NSWman so I'm probably wrong.
NZ-England series will be a great watch. Home-like conditions for England so no excuses against a strong, disciplined Kiwi outfit.