Ben Stokes insists he has ‘the best top-six players in England’ despite being skittled for 112 on day three in Pakistan defeat in the lowest score of the Bazball era

Ben Stokes admitted England had not been good enough to deny Pakistan a decisive victory in the third Test, but insisted his team still contained ‘the best six batsmen’ in the country.

England were bowled out for 112 runs on the third morning of the deciding Test in Rawalpindi – their lowest total of the Bazball era – before slumping to a nine-wicket defeat that handed the hosts a 2-1 win.

And Stokes himself was part of a seven-for-56 collapse, inexplicably failing to offer a shot to a straight delivery from the slow left-armer Noman Ali, who shared 19 of England’s wickets with off-spinner Sajid Khan, and only three lbw lost.

“We’ve been presented with a number of challenges in the last few tests and it’s quite easy to judge that we weren’t able to meet those challenges,” Stokes said. “We couldn’t match what Pakistan threw at us.”

Despite Zak Crawley averaging just 27 during the series, Stokes himself 13 and Ollie Pope 11, the captain sounded unperturbed about the state of his side’s batting. Including their defeat to Sri Lanka at The Oval in September, England have now been bowled out within 38 overs in three of their last four Tests.

Ollie Pope struggled against Pakistan and rarely looked determined on the spin-friendly pitches

But Stokes said: “We have a number of batsmen who have had a really good summer and have a couple of hundreds. Look, you always pick your best players and it’s up to the individual to say, how am I going to give myself the best chance to be successful under those circumstances?

‘But I have no doubt we have the best top-six players in England.’

Stokes admitted that England’s high-octane approach fell short, but added: ‘That doesn’t mean we have doubted ourselves about our abilities or how we want to play.

“When it comes out, it’s talked about in terms of a great way to counter what the opposition throws at you, and I’m never one for hindsight. You would prefer it to work more often than not, but certainly in the last two Test matches our approach has not paid off for us.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shan Masood described his satisfaction at winning the Test after losing the toss on another spinning delivery.

“When we played in Multan we were told it is not sustainable, we cannot take this further,” he said. ‘Yes, Multan was a bit artificial because we used a used field. Pindi was different because this was a fresh base, but prepared in a different way.

Even the masterful Joe Root struggled to assert himself in Rawalpindi despite a highest score of 33 innings

England crashed to defeat in the third Test in what was their lowest total of the Bzball era

‘And when we lost the toss, my message to the boys was: “How would it feel if we actually won the game from here?” After Multan, I felt the luster of our victory was taken away a bit by people saying the toss was very important.”

England are expected to announce their squad for New Zealand early this week. The first of three tests starts on November 28 in Christchurch.