People might imagine there would be a huge panic in the dressing room when a batting collapse is happening, with players running around like headless chickens throwing kit on left, right and centre and struggling to get out to the middle in time.

But, to be honest, it’s rarely like that.

Yesterday, as the wickets began to tumble and it began to look as though things were going against us, the dressing room remained a pretty calm place to be.

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.

We’ve shown time and again over the past few years that we can handle it when the heat comes on, so it’s bitterly disappointing to have worked so hard to get so well placed, only to throw it away so quickly and cheaply.

It’s just depressing when you think of all the effort that has gone in and the whole team feel dejected and frustrated. It is undoubtedly one of the most difficult defeats I’ve been involved in while playing for England because we know there’s nothing we can now do to pull the series back.

As a professional sportsman, I hate losing and losing a series hurts a great deal. It’s not something that has happened often to this England team and, believe me, no-one is hurting more than the players in that dressing room.

I’ve played in England sides in the past when the bowlers or the batsmen aren’t delivering and it becomes so easy to point fingers and play the blame game. It’s divisive and unhelpful.

But this is a different England team and it is absolutely not the time to start splitting into bowling or batting units and saying ‘it’s your fault’.

The batsmen have been absolutely fantastic for us over the past couple of years and have more than delivered the runs the bowlers have needed to set aggressive fields in order to win matches.

It’s really hard to put your finger on why things aren’t happening for them at the moment.

I genuinely thought taking 20 wickets would be the most difficult thing when we came out here and it never really crossed my mind that our main issue would be putting runs on the board.

We know there will be people who will be saying it’s the same old story with England on the sub-continent, not being able to play spin well.

But I genuinely believe we have the players in this squad to succeed on these kinds of pitches. There is a huge amount of talent in our batting line-up.

It’s unusual to have three tours to the sub-continent in one year so, even though this might be a painful experience at the moment, we need to ensure we learn the lessons from these defeats and become a better team for them.

What’s really annoying is that we were so much better in this game than we were in the first Test – Monty Panesar was brilliant on his return and Broady batted and bowled superbly – but clearly we fell way short of the mark in chasing a gettable total.

We’ve said we want to stay at No 1 in the world for an extended period of time, But if you’re losing Test series that is clearly not going to happen. We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are and we need to ensure we re-double our efforts to stay here.

We’re all feeling pretty raw and dejected at the moment and it’s important we pick ourselves up and stay strong, and maintain our belief. We certainly have not become a bad side overnight.

Some of us have our families here at the moment so we’ll probably spend Sunday with them. Even though they’ve been out for four or five days we’ve hardly seen them because we’ve been playing.

We need to clear our heads and set about restoring some pride after a bitterly disappointing couple of weeks.

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We didn’t just let ourselves down in the First Test but we let our management and supporters down, and we are acutely aware that our performance was nowhere near good enough.

Life as a professional sportsman is all about winning, so to lose in that manner, hurts a great deal.

As a coach, Andy Flower had every right to fly off the handle at us for the way we played, and in particular the way we batted, against a Pakistan team who performed with far more focus and sharpness than us.

Andy cares passionately about this England side and does everything in his power to ensure we are immaculately prepared, which makes it all the more frustrating that we seemed to be caught cold on that first morning. Being bowled out for under 200 on that wicket was pretty inexcusable.

Saeed Ajmal is a fine bowler — and it’s for the ICC to decide on his action, not us — but I actually didn’t think he bowled particularly well, even if he did take seven for 55.

Our batsmen just made poor decisions and we paid a heavy price for that. Despite the substandard nature of our performance, Andy kept his calm and delivered an honest and frank assessment in what was an admittedly shell shocked dressing room.

People have pointed to the fact this was our first game since being named the world’s best Test team and that the pressure might have got to us, or we believed our own Press.

Some of the abuse on Twitter has been especially severe, and rightly so. But the fact we’ve just been named the No 1 team is irrelevant.

It wouldn’t matter when we produced a performance like that, it would still be unacceptable.

We set ourselves high standards as a team and we fell well below them. It’s not a question of having to completely rethink our game plan or reinvent the wheel, and we certainly haven’t become a bad side in one performance. Our batsmen just need to make better decisions.

We’ve earned the right to be called the world’s best Test team and next week will show if we are good enough to stay there.

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It has not taken long to slip back into touring after a break that reminded us all what normal family life is actually like.

We have a fantastic team spirit in this England squad and are as close as most family units, but I challenge anyone to spend months in the same hotels as the likes of Graeme Swann and not get at least a little irritated!

We’ve got straight back into that family mentality after just a few days back on tour.

We are in each other’s rooms playing computer games, watching films and watching the Australia and South Africa Tests whenever we have had some time off.

It has been a pretty intense week of training and we have had to fit plenty in because of the short turnaround before the Tests, but the facilities out here in Dubai are quite outstanding. I’ve been here for brief stays but never an extended period.

From the week we have had, it seems like a great place to tour.

We are in a great hotel with some top-notch restaurants close by, so there is plenty to do if we do get time off.

But we won’t forget the main reason we are here… and that is to win a Test series and maintain our position as the world’s No 1 Test team.

Tim Bresnan is struggling a bit with his elbow and Matt Prior is being pretty cautious about his thumb. It is a bit sore and he doesn’t want another knock, but I’m sure he’ll be fine.

We have got all bases covered with our bowling attack.

We have got tall bowlers, fast bowlers, swing bowlers. Graham Onions is out here as well for back-up. There is quality all the way through if there are injury worries.

Steve Finn is genuinely quick now and he can trouble people with his pace.

He also reverses the ball well. That is a natural thing that happens with age and experience.

He is a bright young lad and he wants to learn. He is going to get better and better.

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James Anderson picks out three ups from England’s ill-fated Indian adventure. Oh, and he pulled the plug at three minuses n’all…

THREE PLUSES…

A WIN IS A WIN!

Beating India in the one T20I of the tour at Kolkata was our first win over there since 2006. Although it hardly makes up for losing all five of the 50-over games, at least it did mean that we retain our status as the top ranked 20-over side in the world.

THE MIGHTY FINN

After a successful but challenging tour of Australia and then a hit-and-miss summer at home against Sri Lanka, Steve Finn looked stronger, fitter and faster than ever before in an England shirt. He bowled accurately, he bowled with pace and he bowled with fire and heart.

TAKING AIM

It looked like the coaching staff had encouraged the fielders ‘in the ring’ to stand closer than would be the norm in an attempt to narrow angles and also to give the fielders more opportunities for run-outs. Although the fieldsmen didn’t manage many direct hits, it does bode well for the future. England looked a more aggressive fielding side on the back of it.

THREE MINUSES…

MIDDLE-ORDER MISFIRES

I’m guessing that few of the batsmen felt that they came out of the series with much credit and if there was an area where we struggled the most it was in finding different, varied and productive methods of scoring against the Indian spinners when the pitches were turning and a more patient approach was a virtue. Without Eoin Morgan we definitely looked short of ‘that player’ who could do it all in one-dayers and eventually see the side to a winning score or to chasing down a total.

THE CONFIDENCE GAP

From the first game of the series India looked more confident and England less so. This certainly went a long way in rebalancing the difference between two sides that looked completely the opposite in English conditions. To be so badly beaten by an India side without the names of Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag will hurt.

INDIVIDUALS DELIVERING TEAM GOALS

Top of the tree in Test cricket and 20-over cricket, but on the back of this tour we seem no closer to cracking 50-overs. It’s a team goal to become the best side in the world in all forms of the game and to be currently ranked fifth means we obviously still have a lot of work to do before the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2015. And you would have to say that very few players would currently rate themselves as absolute certainties for selection in four months time, let alone four years. Shirt possession is all up for grabs.

I’ve played in two whitewashes in my career. The first was the Ashes in Australia in 2006/07 and the second one was also on a tour of India where we didn’t win a single game.

With England having lost the series after the third game, but still with two more to play, Andy Flower and the coaching staff will have used England’s well-documented team goal of reaching the number one spot in the world across all three disciplines as a strong motivator. They will have stressed that there were still ranking points to be played for. But it hasn’t proven enough. And not nearly so.

The winning or losing of this series has for me come down to the fact that when England have played spin well in the past, the batsmen attack. It has been team policy to go after the spinners and has paid off in places like South Africa, West Indies and Australia. But in India attacking means being cuter than straightforwardly trying to smash the slow bowlers out of the ground. Simply, you can’t attack spinners in India in, to our mind, the conventional sense. With the pitches turning more and the bounce harder to predict, sweeping ceases to be the answer to everything. You have to find different ways to rotate the strike, to tick the board over and then be in a position to leave your assault later in the innings. In this regard I feel most sorry for the likes of Jonny Bairstow. He played one sensational innings in England and was built up to be the bee’s knees, but he went into the series with no experience of Indian conditions whatsoever and batted in the number six slot where there is no more difficult a place to bat in India. To illustrate the point, MS Dhoni bats at number six for India and uses his vast experience and skill to matchwinning effect.

On the plus side of the ledger, I think Steven Finn has been a real success story. He’s bowled better and better as the series has gone on and also kept his pace up well under physically demanding conditions. Tim Bresnan, as you might expect, has looked solid with bat and ball and as a batting order we have made good starts in a couple of the games. But over all it has been a case of slim pickings.

One thing that England will be disappointed in, alongside the way innings have tailed off against India’s own spinners is the way India have played ours. For England to compete across the series they will have wanted and possibly expected our spinners to be more influential. It’s unlike them not to have played a significant hand in winning one or two games in their own right.

INDIA – 271-8 in 50 overs (Dhoni 75*, Patel 3-57)

ENGLAND 176 all out in 37 overs (Kieswetter 63, Cook 60, Jadeja 4-33, Ashwin 3-28)

RESULT: India won by 95 runs and claim the series five-nil.

ENGLAND 220 all out in 46.2 overs (Bresnan 45, Pietersen 41)

INDIA – 223-4 in 40.1 overs (Kohli 86*, Raina 80, Finn 3-45)

RESULT: India won by six wickets and lead England by four games to nil in the series.

This, the fourth one-dayer of the series. was undoubtedly the toughest for England. It perfectly illustrated the impact that the ebb and flow of confidence plays in the outcome of cricket matches.

Although Alastair Cook’s team would have started the series with an extremely positive attitude on the back of their dominance over India at home, it’s easy to see the difference familiar conditions has played in India’s turn around in form. Slower pitches has seen the home team’s confidence rise and England’s fall. And on arguably the slowest pitch of the series to date, India’s batsmen’s impudence seemed to go a long way in getting under the skin of England’s bowlers and fielders.

Safe to say that some batsmen get under the skin of bowlers more than others. Suresh Raina is one of those players. It will be particularly tough to take for the bowlers to have him smear them all over the field as he did in making 80 today, knowing that he was definitely one of the Indian batsmen who relished the prospect of batting on the quicker English pitches the least. For England to completely overpower him with the short ball – because of his obvious apprehension when faced by it – for him then to come out and be utterly dominant on the slow-and-low pitches of India saw the red mist come down.

Virat Kohli has the same arrogant air about him, but as a player is a completely different kettle of fish. He made another match-winning contribution today and looked a player that would make runs anywhere in the world, not just at home. It must be pretty galling for Kohli to lose his Test place to Raina, someone who looks more of a one-day player.

On the plus side of the ledger for England, Steven Finn bowled fast and accurate and I also thought that Stuart Meaker looked pretty impressive. He has surely done enough to play in the final game of the series. He must regard this as a great opportunity to gain experience – the same must go for Scott Borthwick – and also for them to then appreciate English conditions a whole lot more than they did at the start of the tour!

For me, the biggest plus came in the form of Tim Bresnan. Brezzy bowled well and made a run-a-ball 45 without seeming to move out of third gear. And in the context of the way the innings went that was no mean achievement. Tim looked every inch an international-class allrounder.

But as well as Brezzy played, it again showed the importance of the top order sticking around and doing the bulk of the batting. England must have batsmen at the crease during the powerplays. Today on an extremely slow pitch a total of 250 might have proven a winning score. It would have been a day when an innings like Jonathan Trott’s effort in the third one-dayer (98 from 116 balls) might have proven the catalyst for an England win. No one put their hand up today and perfectly illustrated that sometimes slow and steady does win the race.

ENGLAND 298-4 in 50 overs (Trott 98*, Patel 70*, Pietersen 64)

INDIA – 300-5 in 49.2 overs (Rahane 91, Gambhir 58)

RESULT: India won by five wickets and lead England by three games to nil in the series.

Jonathan Trott’s knock of 98 not out, England’s highest of the series, was always likely to prove a significant contribution. But as England closed their innings at the half-way stage of the game, only four wickets down, it was difficult to judge for which side.

After the first two matches where any number of batsmen reached 30 but failed to go on, you would have to say that it was an innings many had been crying out for and to be fair to Jonathan this is his role identified by the team. So assured and calm was he that it allowed other players to bat around him and make telling contributions.

India’s right-handed opener Ajinkya Rahane made an excellent 91 from 104 deliveries, scoring his runs inside the first 38 overs. And with India at one stage cruising on 190-1 it was a great effort by England to pull the game around to the point where the home side needed to make 30 from the last three overs to win. From that position it was anyone’s game.

But to win a nipper you have to execute your skills perfectly AND have a bit of luck go your way. A no-ball and a wide in Jade Dernbach’s final over, plus a missed run-out by wicketkeeper Craig Keiswetter, plus a snick from Ravindra Jadeja (26 not out) off the unlucky Steven Finn, all tipped the scales in favour of Dhoni’s men.

And what a hand India’s skipper played. Dhoni (35 not out) says very little on the field. But he seems to have the uncanny knack of knowing exactly which ball he should go after and when. He finished the game with two resounding fours off Tim Bresnan when needing seven runs from the final over, but it was his cool head in taking a single off the last ball of the previous over that got his side into a position from which it was their game to lose rather than England’s to win. He gets the ball into gaps, he hits the ball in odd areas and somehow manages more thick inside edges behind square- leg for twos and fours than anyone in the game.

Over all you would have to say that where India were able to make progress throughout the bulk of their innings via low-risk and controlled accumulation, England had to make their headway by defending and hitting boundaries. Both KP and Samit Patel played exceptional innings filled with exceptional strokes. But as good as they played, they only managed to raise the total to what would have to be regarded as ‘top end of par’ and no more.

This pitch in Mohali had more pace and bounce than the previous two. Slower-balls and cutters didn’t dig into the surface like they had been. As a bowler, when bowling at the end of the innings you are always going to stick with the types of delivery you are comfortable bowling on that particular day. Where previously the change-pace balls worked, this time they didn’t. Maybe in the earlier games the over mix was something like two quick balls and four slower balls per over, this time the mix was probably best reversed.

It was a much-improved England performance today in Mohali and the team did enough to win. And but for a couple of errors at the sharp end of the game we could be talking about an England series comeback rather than damage limitation.

ENGLAND 237 all out in 48.2 overs (Pietersen 46, Patel 42, V Kumar 4-30)

INDIA 238-2 in 36.4 overs (Gambhir 84*, Kohli 112*)

RESULT: India won by eight wickets.

An unbeaten third wicket partnership of 209 between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli put the tin lid on Alastair Cook’s men today after all five of England’s middle-order made it to 30, but no one bettered KP’s 46.

I was happy enough with Alastair Cook batting first, despite us bowling first all summer. It’s different conditions in the UK compared to India. A lot different. At home, if there’s anything in the pitch its there at the start of the game. The opposite in India. It was right to bat first, England just needed to bat longer. Ultimately, after being 0-2, England were only ever going to post something near a par score, having effectively given up the chance to throw caution to the wind when needing to rebuild their innings in the first ten overs. And on today’s showing par looked closer to 300 than the 238 they managed.

Batsmen getting to 30 and then getting out, it’s all a bit too easy, isn’t it? They are international players and know their job. Getting to 30 means that they will all have had the chance to weight up the bowlers, weigh up conditions and the pace of the pitch, but then they need to kick on. That’s the time to make it count. To get a competitive score one of the batsmen needs to make a hundred, or two of them need to pass 80. Today, this simply didn’t happen as they all made starts but not a single telling contribution.

For India there were many plus points. The bowling was accurate and they didn’t allow England to get away at all. Vinay Kumar’s figures of 4-30 are his best in one-dayers and he thoroughly deserved them. He’s the sort of bowler that is more illusive than he looks and he makes batsmen work hard for their runs.

Make no mistake, Gambhir and Kohli are both good players. They are different sorts of players, compliment each other well and are really good at what they do. Gambhir is good at manoeuvring the ball, particularly off the spinners. His cutting of Swanny and Samit Patel was perfect. If the ball was short of a length and tight to off-stump he was able to unerringly hit the off-side gap for a single. If the ball was short of a length but fractionally wider, he late-cut the ball brilliantly for four.

Virat Kohli is a different proposition. He’s confident – verging on KP confident – and likes to play to the crowd and show off his skills. He’s a different player of spin than Gambhir, but probably even more effective as he can clear the rope as well as rack up the boundaries.

I think England are picking the right side and making the right decisions about the toss. They just need to give a better account of themselves. Two-nil down with three to play is never an ideal situation, but it will show what the team is made of. Here’s hoping for a stronger showing when the teams hit Mohali on Wednesday.

INDIA 300-7 in 50 over (MS Dhoni 87*, Raina 61, Swann 1-35)

ENGLAND 174 all out in 36.1 overs (Cook 60)

RESULT: India won by 126 runs

You’d have to concede that MS Dhoni’s helicopter shot-filled 87 not out scored at the end of India’s innings was the telling contribution in the first one-dayer at Hyderabad.  He was rightly named man of the match.

He has loads of experience and is especially good in home conditions and today’s pitch was particularly slow and low. You could tell how dead it was by how few short balls the England bowlers bowled. The likes of Tim Bresnan and Steve Finn both bowl good bouncers and like to use it regularly, but I can only remember them attempting one each during the India innings.

I thought that the balance of the side looked just about right. It was tough on Ian Bell to be left out but Jonny Bairstow looks a potential matchwinner and deserved his chance to play. Carrying two spin bowlers, with Ravi Bopara as the sixth bowling option, also looks the right way to go for England.

As well-beaten as England were, I thought on the plus side, Jade Dernbach bowled really well, taking 1-58 from his ten overs. The figures don’t look spectacular on paper, but he bowled his overs in three powerplays, and as a bowler I would be delighted to have gone for that few runs bowling at that stage of the match. Also, Graeme Swann’s 1-35 was typically good. He changed and varied his pace so well that batsmen found it really hard to set themselves to manoeuvre the ball against him and even harder to second-guess what he might bowl next.

I’m also guessing that KP will come in for a bit of stick for not diving when run out attempting one of his trademark quick singles to mid-on. But I’m not sure that’s fair. Kevin is just about the quickest runner in the squad, is usually halfway down the pitch as he makes contact with the ball, and generally gets in without needing to dive.

I think there are a couple of things that the team will need to think about before the next game on Sunday. Firstly, we came unstuck batting in the middle overs against the Indian spinners, going from 111-2 to 174 all out. It’s definitely an area we will need to improve and we have an expert in Andy Flower to talk this through with, so we can be better next time. And secondly, we will need to tighten up the bowling in the new format powerplays. As a team you budget to go for 70 or 80 in the last ten overs of an innings. They will be particularly disappointed to have given up 95 today, and 180 runs in total off the last 20.

Team player: Jimmy Anderson gives the verdict on his team-mates
They have been together for two years under captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower. After routing Australia 3-1 last winter in the Ashes, now they have crushed India. Leader of the attack Jimmy Anderson gives his unique insight into the first England team to be officially ranked world No1.

ANDY FLOWER
Got our analysts to set out a two-to-three-year road map of fixtures, tours and series to become world No 1 and showed us where we’d be if we won each one by a certain score. It underlined how tough it would be to get the required results, especially in Australia and South Africa, but if you have a goal you need to know how to achieve it. Always challenging us in practice, which keeps minds fresh and maintains a desire to improve.

ANDREW STRAUSS
Gets it in the neck (from Swann, mainly) for his posh public school upbringing, but his sense of humour means he is as much one of the lads as anyone. When he needs to be captain, he has the total respect of the players. He’d never ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself and he’s strong on players taking responsibility for their own preparation and performance.

ALASTAIR COOK
After struggling slightly in the first two Tests against India he went straight to the nets with Graham Gooch, his long-term mentor at Essex. He’s just batted for 13 hours and 23 minutes at Edgbaston and scored 294 runs, using the same pair of gloves for the innings and during two warmup sessions before each day. They were dry as a bone when he got out. Freakish that he never sweats.

JONATHAN TROTT
Likes to bat in his own time, in his own style and wants to get big runs every time. Some have said his batting is not exactly a thing of beauty, but it is a joy to watch for us bowlers. To win Test matches you need 20 wickets and you’ve got a much better chance if you can have a day off with your feet up now and then.

KEVIN PIETERSEN
Had to re-adjust after losing the captaincy and had a rough yearby his own admission. Continues to put in all the work and is now batting brilliantly again, which shows his hunger is still there. He and Trott get ribbed about their South African background but on the field everyone pulls in the same direction.

IAN BELL
We are all pleased for him with the form he’s been in and the runs he’s made. He’s done brilliantly at six and now great at No 3 in Trott’s absence. Took a look at himself a year or so ago and added steel to his skill, but when he’s in form he is the guy we all want to watch. Pleasing on the eye and has a body of work to go with his style.

EOIN MORGAN
Had a great start to his one-day career with his unique range of extraordinary shots, but there was plenty of debate over whether he or Ravi Bopara should come in once Paul Collingwood packed up. With an icy calm temperament and huge selfbelief, he is settling well and seems to get better each time he plays. Sometimes so cool you want to check his pulse. Scary.

MATT PRIOR
His batting has become solid and dependable, but he is also the lynchpin of the side in the field. Keeps the energy up, gets people going and applies the odd kick up the backside. Also passes on vital advice to the bowlers. Often, when I’m bowling against left-handers, I’ve been unsure whether I should come around the wicket, he has said: ‘No, stay over, lbw is still in play.’ And it has worked.

TIM BRESNAN
Summed up brilliantly by a Michael Vaughan tweet saying you wouldn’t have him in your pub quiz team, but he’s a helluva bowler. He’s shown he is real world class; very skilful with the ball, possessing a brutish bouncer that’s heavier than you expect. An extremely capable batsman.

STUART BROAD
Like Cook he has responded brilliantly to external pressure over his place in the side. But we all knew he was bowling better than his figures suggested, just not having the rub of the green. Has the skill to counter-attack with the bat, as he did when he swung the game our way in Nottingham. The Aussies don’t call him Kylie any more.

GRAEME SWANN
If you insist. Our outstanding performer over the past couple of years, picking up wickets, chipping in with runs and winding us all up with his shocking humour. Rarely gets down, except when he has an LBW not given, but the sprinkler dance in his Ashes video diary said it all. Indispensable on and off the field. Now, Graeme, take your boot off my throat.

JAMES ANDERSON
I’ve enjoyed leading the attack and being part of this amazing group. A key moment came last summer against Pakistan when I worked on a new ‘wobbly seam’ ball with bowling coach David Saker. It can nip either way and proved crucial in Australia so I’m using it even more now.

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