In the weeks leading up to England's tour of the UAE, Pakistan's captain, Misbah-ul-Haq and his support staff, warned against over-confidence that might be present in his troops. In popular perception, the clean sweep on England's last visit here is now seen as a shellacking - mostly thanks to the final scoreline, yet for most of the first two Tests, especially the second, the tourists were very much in the game, and perhaps even should have won. It wasn't as comfortable as Pakistan's win against Australia last year, for instance, and is something that even the players have acknowledged.

"In our mind we are confident," Misbah said in an interview prior to the series. "But at the same time creating a perception about our past victory against them by 3-0 doesn't make any difference. This is a new series. England are a much-improved side and are coming after playing their best cricket back home. They are a far better side in terms of playing spin and this is the reason I stand guarded against us being over confident."

And yet, come the first Test, the perception created was that even if Pakistan weren't complacent going into the match, they certainly were by the end of the second day - and for most of England's innings, it seemed like they were waiting for England to fall over their sword, a la Australia, than trying to pry the door open. Misbah, though, denied such a reading of the situation."I have said this before that we're taking England very seriously. I think maybe all those who watch have a different perception, but I have been saying this from the very start they are a professional team and are very determined, they have learnt from their mistakes in the past and are a totally different team to what they were on the last tour, so we have to lift our performance if we want to win."

What was evident however, was that Pakistan were somewhat unprepared for a fight after putting up a big score in their first innings and almost seemed unready to grind the game out, especially after tea on day 5. The wickets of Hafeez, Younis and Misbah in particular pointed to the sort of lethargy that the perpetrators had warned against themselves. But Misbah, prior to the second Test, shrugged off their second innings collapse as an aberration. "Everybody knows that we made mistakes and we have to avoid repeating them. But if we just look into the last couple of years performance of our batting on the fourth or fifth day it has been very professional and we have done well especially if we look at the last test match in Sri Lanka we chased 377 or [in Dubai] against New Zealand on the fifth day when we played the fourth innings very well too. We have batted well in fourth innings of matches recently. It was just one odd day and I think we have to forget that, and be really professional in the next game."

The benefit of doubt remains with this Pakistani batting line-up, considering what they've done over the past eighteen months, but what they do know now is that they are in a dogfight against a team who are no longer overawed by them, if they ever were. Despite being considered an inexperienced side England have proven that they won't roll over as easily as some in Pakistan would have guessed or expected. Four of the English top five played in the historic series win in India barely three years ago - and even if Bairstow and Root didn't have the greatest of roles in that - as long Alistair Cook, the man who finished that series as the man of the series, is in form England will fancy their chances. Furthermore, they've come into this series perhaps more prepared than they were last time around - when they were coming off a six month lay-off, and probably were the team that could have been accused of over-confidence going into the series. This time the tables were turned and