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KEY TAKEAWAYS: - Saud Shakeel called Pakistan's batting collapse at Edgbaston depressing after they were bowled out for 133. - He said the top order's inability to see off the new ball has become a recurring mistake. - Shakeel admitted Pakistan was caught out by conditions offering more lateral movement than expected. Saud Shakeel concedes why Pakistan struggles in England Pakistan's batting has produced a familiar sight throughout this tour, and Edgbaston brought no departure from the script, only fresh statistical lows to accompany it. Bowled out for 133 in 33.5 overs on what appeared to be the best surface of the series, the tourists managed the unwanted feat of having their entire top five fail to reach double figures in a Test innings in England, a first. Saud Shakeel, the one batter who has looked capable of resisting all summer, was left to explain a collapse that had little to do with the pitch and everything to do with shot selection. Azan Awais fell to a soft dink to midwicket, while Shan Masood offered a casual back-foot jab that ballooned to a simple catch off a leading edge. Speaking after the day's play, Shakeel did not attempt to disguise his frustration at watching the same pattern repeat itself for the third Test running. MORE: Boycott explains Root's LBW woes as England captain gets out cheaply against Razaullah Why Saud Shakeel called Pakistan's batting collapse depressing Shakeel was blunt about the nature of the dismissals, pointing to a lack of discipline rather than any conspiracy of difficult conditions. He stressed that the surface had actually offered an opportunity Pakistan failed to take. "The pitch will improve as the Test goes on, but early on, there was juice in it," Shakeel said. "The toss isn't in our hands, but we lost it and batted first, and the overcast conditions favoured England there. That was an opportunity to strike up a partnership because the pitch improved as the day went on." He pointed out how even the hosts struggled against the new ball. However, that didn't mean he minced his words, as his assessment of the batting unit's mentality was unflinching. "It's depressing; we're making the same mistake as a batting unit," Shakeel said. Pakistan were bowled out in 33.5 overs on what appeared to be the best batting wicket of the series 📉 pic.twitter.com/ZoAfHWpPA9 — Cricinfo (@cricinfo) September 10, 2026 The batter also brought up Pakistan's multiple batting collapses. "We're getting out in bunches, and there were lots of soft dismissals today. We're trying, but yes, it's frustrating that we keep making the same mistakes." MORE: Pakistan cricket team mistaken for asylum seekers by masked protesters in Portsmouth How Shakeel has adapted his game to become Pakistan's lone resistance He was careful to separate the issue from confidence, framing it instead as a difficulty breaking a cycle of poor form under pressure. "I don't think it's a confidence issue. If you don't have the confidence to play at this level, then you don't deserve to play here. But in difficult conditions, poor form can be quite hard to break out of," he said. Shakeel's own contribution has stood apart from the collapse around him. Long regarded as a poor traveller outside Asian conditions, he has compiled 140 runs across his last two innings and remains comfortably Pakistan's highest scorer of the series, adjusting his method depending on what the situation has demanded. At Lord's, that meant taking on the short ball, a marked departure from his usual attritional approach, while at Edgbaston, he again abandoned caution as wickets fell around him. "I try to play according to the demands of any situation. With wickets falling around me, the best option for me was to make as many runs as I could. So I was batting quicker to adjust to the situation around me," he said. MORE: Former Pakistan WK Rashid Latif makes 'Indian agent' remark against head coach Mike Hesson Why Shakeel says Pakistan misjudged English conditions Shakeel also offered a broader explanation for why the tour has gone so badly wrong, suggesting Pakistan had misread how the summer would play out based on earlier results in England and had underestimated just how much lateral movement they would face compared to home conditions. "The conditions were challenging, especially at Lord's," he said. "Over there, even someone like Joe Root struggled and has had a difficult series. I was surprised by the conditions here. If you look at the New Zealand series and compare it to this one, there is a lot of lateral movement here." He kept it clean, as he said, "We are not used to that, perhaps. But we were trying our best. We accept our batting failures, but the conditions are also in the favour of the bowlers." It is a fair point as far as it goes, and Root's own struggles this summer lend some weight to the idea that conditions have been unusually testing. But Shakeel's own admission cuts both ways. If Pakistan's batters are simply unaccustomed to this degree of seam movement, that points to a preparation failure rather than bad luck, and it offers little explanation for soft dismissals like Awais' dink to midwicket or Masood's leading edge, both of which owed more to technique and shot selection than anything the pitch was doing. For all the latest cricket news, opinion, and commentary, and to share your voice, head to our Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) pages.