England's rookies fail their test of mettle

This was a defining day. There was no Alastair Cook to marshal the batting. England's youthful middle order had the chance to seize a Test match that was perfectly balanced. Within a session it had gone horribly wrong.

Pakistan's bowling was exemplary, especially the hostile, conditions-defying nine-over spell from Wahab Riaz which dispatched that young, spluttering engine room of England. It was nothing less than his performance in the first Test-and-a-half of the series deserved - reverse swing at 90mph is some sight - but England gave him a significant helping hand.

Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler all fell to a variety of flat-footed pokes outside off stump. In less than a session England went from being neck-and-neck in the series, to facing a herculean task to leave Dubai with the contest still level.

In one sense it was the innings that England feared they would produce at least once in the series having arrived as distant second-favourites, although it went against expectation that a pace bowler should spark the collapse. Once Root departed, an edged drive to the keeper reminiscent of a few dismissals this year (although he has plenty of credit in the bank) the door was ajar for Pakistan.

Stokes was uncertain against Yasir Shah, edging wide of short leg, before his eagerness to get bat on ball left him wafting away from his body. And then Buttler's slump continued with a drive that smacked of a batsman low on confidence. In his last seven Tests, Buttler has averaged 13.54 with a top score of 42.

Yet, despite the way the Abu Dhabi Test ended with England moments from victory, a morning such as this should not come as a massive surprise.

Aside from Cook and Root, who have managed six hundreds between them in 2015, England's batting has been inconsistent at best this year. Only four hundreds have been scored by the remainder of the line-up: Ian Bell in Antigua, Gary Ballance in the same game, Ben Stokes at Lord's and Adam Lyth at Headingley Two of those names are now not in the team.

It highlights the underperformance of others, and the ruthlessness the selectors showed in dropping him, that Ballance's average of 35.76 remains the third best for England this year. Of the XI currently on the field, that standing belongs to Ben Stokes with 33.40, but he has one fifty in his last eight innings. To put it another way, Cook and Root have scored 2442 runs between them in 42 innings in 2015, while the other eight batsmen used in that period have made 3075 runs in 119 innings, and that includes Moeen Ali who spent the Ashes at No. 8.

Take it back even further, to April 2014 as a cut-off, and the numbers are not much better. Cook, Root and Ballance have averages over fifty but the next best, of a reasonable sample size, is Buttler at 31.15. Too much is resting on too few.

England value loyalty, but they also need to show some even-handedness. If Ballance was deemed to be under-performing despite averaging 47.76 after 15 Tests, then others will have to come under the same scrutiny. As is often the case, the fortunes of those players in reserve tend to rise when a collapse such as this unfolds, but James Taylor has been pushing hard for a place over the last couple of months. One option could be that he replaces Buttler and Jonny Bairstow is given the gloves.

A dropped catch down the leg side in the second over of Pakistan's second innings compounded Buttler's day although his glovework errors are increasingly rare and he soon made amends by catching Shan Masood instead. However, in the modern game, catching alone is not enough for a keeper and before the match, Cook acknowledged the diverging fortunes of Buttler's game.

"He finds this format here his least natural, in one-day cricket and T20 cricket he knows his method and is still working very hard on that," he said. "He's nowhere near the finished article, we know the potential Jos has got…I don't think we should forget about how well he kept in [the first] Test, 170 overs in those conditions, I thought he kept superbly in that first Test in the subcontinent. He's contributing there, he knows he has to score runs - that's what happens when you play for England and have people pushing for your place - but he is in a good spot and we are right behind him."

There are no simple solutions. Although Bairstow's entry on the scorebook shows a considerably greater contribution than Buttler, he endured a torrid time on the third day as well. He had played solidly on the second evening, and his first ball of the morning against Yasir was a confident push through the covers, but Yasir soon had him in the palm of his leg-spinning hand.

Bairstow should have fallen on 40 to a slip catch by Younis Khan only for the third umpire to rule it had been grounded; the only difference between that incident and James Anderson's catch to remove Zulfiqar Babar in Abu Dhabi was the identity of TV umpire. Chris Gaffaney has replaced S Ravi for this match.

Before then Bairstow had nicked one fine of Younis and top-edged another that Sarfraz Ahmed could not gather when beaten by extra bounce. Then, in the space of an over, he edged another between the keeper and slip, survived a loud appeal for lbw and almost got himself in a tangle as he came down the pitch. Eight more balls was all it took for Yasir to finally remove him, a delivery sliding on to trap Bairstow lbw.

The less said about Adil Rashid's hack off Yasir the better. Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, is known to keep his emotions under control but even he will have needed a deep breath or two.

The phrase "developing side" is used regularly with this England team and it remains a valid point, particularly in these conditions. Heading into this tour, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler - the batting quartet that was culpable on the third day here - had two caps between them in Asia. However, poor shots are poor shots regardless of how many matches have been played. This tour was always expected to be an education for England. Today they were given a harsh lesson.