Pakistan coach Misbah Ul Haq urged his wards to not let the disappointment of previous Test's bitter defeat play into their minds too much and come out fighting in the next game in Southampton, beginning August 13.
The visitors, having taken a 107-run lead at the end of the first half and posting a target of 277 on a Day 4 surface offering turn and uneven bounce to fast bowlers, lost despite that in Manchester.
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What must've felt really painful to skipper Azhar Ali & company is the fact that they had England 117/5 at one stage and yet lost the game from there, with Jos Buttler (75) and Chris Woakes (84*) pulling off an excellent counter-attack, which ultimately led to their team's three-wicket win.
Losing in a series abroad like that, many visiting sides aren't able to recover. But Misbah insisted his boys will bounceback and level the series.
"It's easy to curse yourself when you've lost," he wrote in a column published on the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) website. "But, we should remember that we were right on top until pretty much the last session of the game. We will do our best to come back in this series, which I really believe this team is capable of doing."
"Sure, we need to improve 10 to 15 per cent and deal with pressure situations a little better but we shouldn't be mentally down," Misbah added. "There is disappointment, of course, but we must not keep that feeling in our minds otherwise it will be difficult to come back but the team believes we can fight back."
Misbah did concede, though, that Pakistan could've held its nerves a touch better when the Buttler-Woakes duo started playing their shots.
"(They) took the game away from us," he said, adding, "They counter-attacked well and there was a bit of inexperience — and even panic —in the team that cost us."
"We still need to improve, of course, but overall we fought really well against a top team in our first international fixture for six months."
Misbah also played down concerns over the workload on his pacemen - Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi - in what is a series featuring three back to back Tests after a lengthy break amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"They bowled a decent amount of overs but not too much so I don't think there are issues of fatigue at the moment," he said.
"But let's see how everybody is feeling just before the match, how the conditions are and we will decide accordingly," Misbah added on the possibility of changing the playing XI at the Ageas Bowl.
(Inputs from AFP)
