Flower - Poor preparation cost us

Pakistan sealed a 71-run victory in the third and final Test to complete a miserable tour for world's number one ranked Test side.

England's players were given time off to rest ahead of the series and Flower, after admitting his charges were well below-par, shouldered his share of the blame for their poor preparation.

"I don't think our commitment and our hunger to win has been down," he told Sky Sports. "But (we spent a) couple of months out of the game and not doing a lot while Pakistan were beating Sri Lanka and working hard to beat Bangladesh and that hardened them up for this contest.

"Looking back now I don't think we were ready. I shoulder that side of the blame because it was my decision to give them that time off. We won't let that happen again.

Lack of sharpness

"Certainly during that rest time our team and support staff were all being lauded and while that was happening Pakistan were working hard at their game and beating international opposition.

"We do have a lot of faith in our players and that faith has been justified over a long period of time. But we've obviously under performed here badly. I've been surprised by how poorly we've batted out there. "
Andy Flower Quotes of the week

"Consequently one side was sharp and ready and one side wasn't and we've got to do something about that."

Flower admitted he was surprised by how badly his batsmen had performed in admittedly tough conditions.

"We do have a lot of faith in our players and that faith has been justified over a long period of time," he continued. "But we've obviously under performed here badly. I've been surprised by how poorly we've batted out there.

"We've had some outstanding performances from the bowlers, backed up in the field, but the very obvious area (of weakness) is playing the spin.

"We have too take the lessons that have been learned here and improve our skills and improve our method for the Sri Lankan tour."

Pietersen below par

Kevin Pietersen was one of a number of leading players to underwhelm with his displays, managing just 67 in six innings.

Flower added: "A number of our big players have under-performed in this series.

"It was the first time that so many of our established Test cricketers were out of runs and not feeling as confident as they usually do and not as clear in their method as they usually are. Kevin was one of those."

Flower will name his side for the upcoming four one-day internationals against Pakistan on Tuesday but insisted there would be no knee-jerk reaction to the whitewash in the Test side.

"There are not wholesale changes, there are one or two changes," Flower stated.