England's Test captain Ben Stokes backed his faltering top spot despite his team suffering a 2-1 series defeat in Pakistan, saying he had “no doubt” he had the best players in the country.

England scored a massive 823 runs in their innings victory to open the series on a flat pitch in Multan – Harry Brook scored a triple century and Joe Root 262 – but otherwise batters struggled in the two subsequent defeats on turn tracks .

Ben Duckett scored 114 in the first innings in the second Test, but the rest of the top order hardly contributed; Zak Crawley averaged 27.80 in the three Tests, Ollie Pope just 11.00 and Stokes himself just 13.25 in his two appearances since returning from a hamstring injury.

Sky Sports' Nasser Hussain said: “Three of your (England’s) top six look lost.”

“I'm talking about Crawley, Pope or even Stokes in Asia… his last 10 results are very low in these conditions.”

But the captain was there to help and advise the selected players Sky Sports: “There is no doubt in my mind and Brendon (McCullum) that we have the best top six players in England.”

“Sometimes guys reap the rewards of a good performance in the middle and unfortunately some other guys will miss out.”

“How you deal with disappointment, how you deal with failure, and how you overcome it is a big part of who you are as an individual.”

On his own difficulties getting into shape with the bat, Stokes added: “I'm always trying to adapt and develop as a player, be it against spin or against pace.”

“I've played so much cricket that the disappointment is always there, it always hits hard, but when you have so much experience to draw on it's always easier to bear.”

Stokes: England's approach didn't pay off

Commenting on the disappointing series loss to Pakistan, Stokes added: “We've been presented with some challenges in the last two games and a good way to think about it is that we haven't risen to those challenges.”

“If that happens, you’re likely to find yourself on the wrong side of the outcome – and that’s exactly what happened.”

“It's very easy to sit here and at the end, when everything has unfolded, say, 'Could we have done things a little differently and compared ourselves to the way Pakistan did things?'”

“But when we step onto the field we are completely clear about how we want to proceed and I am sure Pakistan would have done the same.”

England's bold approach, dubbed 'Bazball' since he and head coach Brendon McCullum took over the team in the summer of 2022, catapulted them to a 3-0 series win on their final tour of Pakistan later that year.

On all three surfaces they faced two years ago, batters were similarly favored as they were in the series opener this year, but when the ball turned in the subcontinent, England struggled – losing 4-1 against India mostly hit turning points at the start of the year

Despite this, Stokes said the team continues to stick to their style of play.

“We have seen on a number of occasions that this approach has worked for us and for individuals,” the captain added.

“If it comes about there is obviously talk of it being a great way to counter what the opposition have shown you.”

“You'd rather it work more often than not, but in the last two friendlies our approach definitely didn't pay off for us. That doesn't mean we doubted our abilities or how we wanted to perform.” There and play.

“And I'm never one to ever live in hindsight…You can never go back and change your decision or what happened.”

What's next for England?

England's white-ball side travel to the West Indies for three one-day internationals and a five-match T20 series. The ODIs begin on Thursday, October 31 in Antigua.

Stokes' Test team are next in action in New Zealand where they will play three games, starting in Christchurch on Thursday November 28th.

Pakistan vs England Test Series

First test: Multan – England won by an innings and 47 runs

Second test: Multan – Pakistan won by 152 runs

Third test: Rawalpindi – Pakistan won by nine wickets