Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes Pakistan have “found the kryptonite to Bazball” as the English press pack have piled on Ben Stokes’ side’s following their third day capitulation to lose the deciding third Test in Rawalpindi.

Pakistan prevailed by nine wickets after rolling England for only 112 in the third innings as finger spinners Sajid Khan (ten) and Noman Ali (nine) took 19 wickets between them for the match.

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It was the latest example of captain Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum’s ultra-aggressive approach failing to adapt to spinning conditions.

They lost four straight Tests in India this year and were beaten in the second Test in Multan on the re-used pitch which was flat as a pancake in the opening Test when Harry Brook scored a triple-hundred and Joe Root got a double-ton.

The India losses were excused because of their phenomenal record at home but New Zealand eroded their aura of invincibility by clinching the second Test, and the series, on Saturday to inflict India’s first home Test series defeat in 11 and a half years.

But the commentary has been far harsher this time around as Pakistan had not won a Test match at home in three and a half years before this series, and have experienced major instability off the field with a revolving door of coaches, board members and selectors.

England’s Bazball philosophy has thrived on lifeless pitches where batters cannot be troubled by spin or seam movement, but Hussain is dumbfounded by their lack of adaptability saying “the discrepancy in the England side is a concern”.

“It shouldn’t be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line, but then the moment it grips and you can’t play like that, you’re then a little bit lost,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.

“And three of their top six seem to be lost in these conditions. I’m talking about Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, who has hard hands, or Stokes in Asia. His last 10 scores are very low in these conditions, and he used to be one of our best players of spin.

“Within that side, I want to see a bit more learning. It can’t just be ‘that’s the way we play’. I want to see more learning and improvement when the pitches turn.”

The most worrying thing for England is those questions marks over their leaders.

Crawley played his 50th Test match in Rawalpindi, but did not show the nous of an experienced player to adjust his game to facing spinners with the new ball.

The right-handed opener scored 139 runs at 27.80 for the series – with a high score of 78 when England piled on 7/823 declared on the Multan road – but that mark is only slightly lower than his career average of 31.98.

Inconsistency has been the nature of his career, but Stokes and McCullum love him for his ability to play out-of-the-box, big innings like he did in Manchester last year with 189 against Australia in the rained-out fourth Ashes Test.

Crawley is a player who likes pace and bounce, and is one of many in the current England set up who have been backed-in under the belief they can thrive in Australia next summer, and Hussain has become fed up with that line of thinking.

“All we ever hear about with England is The Ashes, away [in 2025]. But we play so many series before The Ashes, and conditions here are so different from Australia,” Hussain said.

“Someone like Zak Crawley, his position should come under threat, but when I say that, people say ‘well, I think he’ll be alright in Australia’. That doesn’t matter here, this month. How are you going to play this month?

“How are you going to be consistent in these conditions? The same with Ollie Pope… it can’t always be feast or famine with him.

“It can’t just be about one series [The Ashes] every four years, away from home. You’re almost not taking Pakistan seriously.”

Pope captained England in the first Test against Pakistan as well as in their three-Test home series against Sri Lanka in August and September.

But the vice-captain’s diminishing returns at number three have placed him under the pump.

He could only muster 55 runs at an average of 11 for the series, and in his last 12 Test innings he has passed 30 once – with 154 against Sri Lanka on his home ground of The Oval.

During this series, Babar Azam was dropped by Pakistan for a similar lean patch and in his final Test after 33 years as the BBC’s cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew wrote that Pope will need a big tour of New Zealand – which gets underway next month – to prevent the axe falling on him.

“Ollie Pope is baffling. When he gets in, he makes teams pay, and his hundreds are regularly big hundreds. It’s the getting in that has become the problem,” Agnew said.

“He got a good ball in the second innings in Rawalpindi. He was sucked in by the guile of Noman. It is the sort of thing that happens when you’re out of form.

“The New Zealand tour now looks like a really big series for Pope, because he doesn’t want to be giving England a decision to make. He should think long and hard about giving the first 30 balls of his innings to the bowlers, to make sure he is still in at the end of that period.

“Pope doesn’t have to look far for an example, because (Joe) Root is one of the very best at it.”

As for Stokes, the captain looked all at sea this series.

He has been mocked endlessly on social media for letting go of his bat and launching it high into the sky towards mid-wicket when out stumped in the last innings of the second Test.

In England’s second innings, Stokes did a full 360 and got out lbw leaving the ball.

It was clear the all-rounder’s mind was scrambled on his return from a torn hamstring as his poor record in Asia – he averages 26.46 on the continent and has failed to make a half-century in his last 13 innings.

“Ben Stokes’ dismissal on the final day, playing no shot to a straight ball from Noman Ali, was a complete brain fade from one of the most clear-thinking cricketers I’ve ever seen,” Agnew said.

“Stokes usually has such clarity about his game. To see such an error in judgement is really unusual.

“Stokes hasn’t played for so long and hasn’t been himself. The captain had more than two months out with a hamstring injury and was feeling his way back.

“There were times when it looked like he had quite a lot on his mind and he admitted it has felt like a long tour.

“What Stokes has in his favour is a sound technique. He will come good, of that I have no doubt. It might do him good that England’s next Test is in Christchurch, where he will be surrounded by a lot of family and friends.”

For all the talk among themselves of how privileged people are to watch them play Test cricket and how they have transformed the format, followers of England cricket are still asking would the old-fashioned approach have served them better here?

It is undeniable that Bazball has improved their record overall – this was only their second series defeat of the Stokes/McCullum era which began in 2022, they have won six series and drawn two.

But do they need to take a horses for courses approach rather than having a one-size fits all mentality with the bat?

The UK Telegraph’s cricket correspondent Scyld Berry certainly thinks so with a scathing assessment of their conduct in Pakistan.

“Other Test teams in England’s history would have gone down for 144 and 112 in these same circumstances of the past two Tests, or for not much more. But the point is that they would have sold their wickets more dearly,” Berry wrote.

“This England team, under the current direction of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, are more generous: take one wicket, get one free, or two, or three. Hurry, hurry, the sales are now on: all wickets to go cheaply.

“And the knock-on effect of these sudden and seismic collapses, if they only could see it, is that England’s batsmen encourage the opposition. The Australians can only be delighted at watching England’s one-track naivety: they know that this England side is inherently brittle.

“Pakistan had only to be patient and wait – this was the message of Pakistan’s coach Jason Gillespie, an Australian himself, after the first Test – and an England batsman will try something completely inappropriate in the circumstances, a shot of excessively high risk. The last thing they will do is dig in and fight.”

England do not return to the sub-continent for Test matches until a tour of Bangladesh in 2027.

Which means Stokes and McCullum are likely to sweep this loss aside, and focus on pumping up their boys ahead of upcoming series in more favourable conditions but things may not necessarily get easier.

New Zealand will be an intriguing battle as the inaugural world Test champions return home buoyed by acing the toughest challenge in Test cricket – India in India.

Next year then looms as a massive assignment for Bazball with India at home before coming to Australia for the Ashes where they have not won a Test in their last 15 attempts.

This loss in Pakistan has allowed the jungle drums to start beating, and they will only grow louder if England’s batters continue to put a low price on their wickets when they cannot use the turning ball as an excuse.