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There is no reason for England to press the panic button. When you play on a pitch that has been used for five days, the draw becomes absolutely very important, and it was bad that England lost.
As you can see with the decreasing scores throughout the Test match, with each innings he started to spin more and batting became more difficult.
But England will not make excuses and will remain disappointed. Pakistan's spinners outplayed England's spinners and Pakistan's batsmen outplayed England's batsmen.
The hosts may not encounter conditions as extreme as these in the decisive test in Rawalpindi, which has historically been a flat course.
It was as difficult as it can be for England in what was effectively a day nine pitch. But there is still a lot to do in England's batting department in these conditions.
England must remain calm and realize that conditions will probably be less hostile in the future.
They were defeated by 152 runs by Pakistan as the hosts leveled the series in Multan.
Ollie Pope needs to find consistency. His form is becoming a concern for England.
The sweep shot is an absolute option in this part of the world, but you shouldn't worry too much about it. You still have to mix it up. Look at how Salman Ali Agha batted in Pakistan's second innings. He didn't play all the balls.
Pakistan spinners are very experienced and once they know what you are going to do with each ball, they will vary their pace and line and come back to you.
Of course, if the sweep is your chance, as it is with Ben Duckett, go for it. You can't fault Duckett for sweeping the second innings after his century in the first. For him, a sweep is as good as a forward defense. The same goes for Ben Stokes. Look at how he played against Nathan Lyon in his big innings at Headingley in 2019, with plenty of sweeps and reverse sweeps.
But Stokes also brought down Lyon that day and, just once in a while, that's the right thing to do, as Brydon Carse did yesterday.
You can bowl it over the top, drive it towards square leg for a single or go down the field, although that's a bigger risk when the ball is moving away from the bat, as Zak Crawley discovered on night three when He was fooled by Nobody.
When Crawley came forward like that, he was all in. But you can come and try to communicate it, so if he cheats on you, you can still try to kick him. It was a high risk shot from Crawley when Noman Ali is falling and spinning so much.
In Noman and Sajid Khan, Pakistan have two very different spinners. Noman is like an old left-arm spinner, who is slower and sometimes you can try to play him off the back foot. Sajid shoots more and England tried to come up with a plan trying to get him off his line.
There are only a few non-negotiables, like the two pitches Ollie Pope played in both innings: driving against the curve and being bowled through the gate, then returning it to the bowler.
The series will now be decided in Rawalpindi next week.
England were left chasing 297 for victory but never came close to achieving it.
This was the ninth day of use of the field and Pakistan's gamble paid off well.
I watched him play in the morning and he was full of sweeps and reverse sweeps. But he still hits the ball. Compare that to Joe Root, one of England's best spin players who has such softness in his game and lets the ball come to him. Pope hits it and that's dangerous when a pitch grabs and spins.
His form is a concern for England. It's still a bit feast or famine. Just two games ago he scored a magnificent hundred at The Oval, but before that, he didn't score many runs. On either side of your big scores, there are a lot of low scores, so you need to find consistency in your game.
Still, England must not get too depressed and start thinking, “We can't play scheming.” And there are still plenty of positives to come out of the game, particularly the way Carse bowled throughout the game and how Shoaib Bashir bowled in the second innings.
Test cricket needed a week like this after 556 played 823 last week. It prepares him very well for the decisive match in Rawalpindi.