Babar's side suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of England, the first time a side has completed a clean sweep over Pakistan in Test cricket on home soil
Lack of experience, a depleted pace arsenal and poor batting were to blame for Pakistan's series defeat against England, believes Babar Azam.
His side suffered losses in Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi in the three-match series – the first time a side has inflicted a clean sweep series result against Pakistan on home soil.
"A defeat like this hurts," Babar said. "We had one or two matches under our control, but we lost them. If we'd won those, this would be a different scenario.
"You have to credit England the way they have dominated and the different way they have played their cricket. We'll need to assess where we lacked, and do the best for the team."
It's fair to say Babar wasn't given the kindest hand by the selection committee, with no fewer than six players – Saud Shakeel, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Ali, Zahid Mahmood, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammad Wasim Jr – handed debuts across the series. Elsewhere, Agha Salman only made his Test bow in July while Shan Masood returned to the side in Karachi after a near two-year absence from international red-ball cricket.
Abrar Ahmed's arrival on the international stage was one of the few positives for Pakistan [Matthew Lewis/Getty Images]
Abrar finished the series as the leading wicket-taker, picking up 17 wickets at 27.17, while Shakeel scored four half-centuries, but Pakistan's Test squad is clearly in something of a transitional phase, with Babar calling for both patience and consistency of selection to help his side develop.
Additionally, following injuries to Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, and Shaheen Shah Afridi, the latter of whom didn't feature at all in the series, and in light of the increasingly crowded international schedule, better management of Pakistan's bowlers is a priority for the skipper.
"You need experience in Test cricket and our experienced players were either unfit or not in form. Our team was young with Azhar Ali the only experienced player. When you take a chance with youth, it takes time. You can't change everything in a day or a week," Babar said.
"I'll try and back the new boys we have, give it time and see where we stand. It's a new team, so the greater chance you give them and the more you build this side, the team will improve. But you'd have to play them consistently."
Addressing Pakistan's pace problems, he continued: "You need the kind of bowlers who get 20 wickets; if you don't, you won't win.
"With new players, it's different because when the opposition attacks them, it's a sharper kind of pressure and it takes time to get used to that. When new fast bowlers come in, it's difficult, especially when England play the way they do because they don't let you settle.
Injuries to Haris Rauf, among others, did not help Pakistan's cause [Matthew Lewis/Getty Images]
"There's so much back-to-back cricket, you have to be ready all the time. Fitness becomes ultra-important because if you aren't fit, you won't be able to play three Tests. These days you only get two or three days to switch formats, and you have to be mentally ready too.
"We'll try and look after our quicks better because there are back-to-back series and the [ODI] World Cup coming up, so we'll have to plan with a view to that."
One area where they had few excuses for under-performing, however, was with the bat. Aside from Babar and Shakeel, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman were the only other players to score multiple 50-plus knocks. 114 of Abdullah Shafique's 213 runs came in a single innings while both Azhar and Mohammad Rizwan were off-colour with bat in hand.
"We didn't apply ourselves," Babar admitted. "When things were in our hands, there were soft dismissals, and we couldn't win matches. Our strength was our batting because our bowling was under-strength. We tried to dominate and played well in patches, but we couldn't finish it off.
"We dominated in Multan when Abrar got 11 wickets, but we lacked in the batting. There were patches when we put England on the back foot, but we kept losing wickets. It's something we need to work on."
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