The England team is a co-operative, one for all and all for one in a manner that would make Athos, Porthos and Aramis seem like self-centred egotists. They share the glory and they share the blame. So the three-match whitewash in the recent Test series will be viewed, for public consumption, as a comment on their collective inability to overcome Pakistan in trying conditions.
Realistically, though, the team know, those who follow the team know, and the team know that they know, that it was anything but a dismal all-round performance. The bowling was heroic, touching brilliant at times – the batting rarely adequate and plumbing depths once the Pakistan spinners got their teeth into the job.
So in selecting a squad to go to Sri Lanka in less than a fortnight, for a two-Test series, it will be the batting that comes under scrutiny, the bowling left alone save for a replacement for the unfortunate but serially injured Chris Tremlett, who is rehabilitating after back surgery and may never reappear, such is the pace at which things move on these days.
Why the batting struggled so much in the UAE will have been the subject of much review even as the one-day element of the tour has been played: inept technique against spin; a rare collective failure, particularly in the engine room of the batting order; inability to counter the new demands made by the implementation of the umpire decision review system; and poor form, plain and simple, which can happen to anyone at any time. It was, in a manner of speaking, the batting equivalent of the perfect storm.
So there may be a sanguine element to the thoughts of selectors when it comes to moving on. Players proven over a significant period do not, unless time is catching up, become bad players all of a sudden, and England possess players of pedigree. Alastair Cook is a modern phenomenon; Jonathan Trott unflappable; Kevin Pietersen unique; and Ian Bell a stylist to match any and one of the leading batsmen in the world last year. Currently no one anywhere can match the performance of Matt Prior at seven.
Only at either end of the batting order ought there to be real concern, with Andrew Strauss still waiting to play a definitive innings to match his last Test hundred, in Brisbane 15 months ago, and Eoin Morgan, in whom much has been invested after successfully establishing himself as one of the game's foremost limited-overs batsmen, a young man struggling to come to terms with the different demands of Test cricket. For now Strauss, despite his lost ability to convert good starts into big scores which once was his hallmark, is ring-fenced, his leadership, while unlikely to sustain him for ever, still an important factor. Both he and Bell will go to Sri Lanka ahead of the rest of the party to work on their games.
Instead it is Morgan, in the Emirates the least unsuccessful (I do mean that) of a middle-order trio of he, Bell and Pietersen, whose immediate future will come under scrutiny. Anyone who has seen him chase down targets in one-day internationals with chilling certainty, and the array of well-chosen strokes that he utilises to do so, will recognise a special talent, and one which England clearly believe can translate into a successful Test batsman.
Yet despite Test centuries in England, first against Pakistan and then India, Morgan has yet to establish more than mediocre figures by modern standards, barely averaging 30 in 16 Tests and only just 36 in matches before a hideous series in the Middle East. They do not tell of someone who has readily adapted to Test cricket.
How much of this is technical and how much mental is hard to gauge. There was always an initial concern that productive elements of his one-day game would prove a hindrance when faced with Test bowling and field settings, and that the more frenetic demands of limited-overs do not sit against the idea of constructing a Test innings. He appears to have problems establishing himself at the crease, and in 14 of 24 innings has failed to reach 20.
The exaggerated squat which precedes his trigger movement has also become an issue, attracting criticism in the way that his head has been moving as the bowler is about to deliver, something that goes against the head-steady (and therefore eyes) dictum of the best players, however idiosyncratic. It seems to be something that has gradually become more pronounced rather than introduced as a deliberate technique, and he professes himself comfortable with it. Perhaps it is more a question of timing.
This will test how much England want to invest further. Jettison him now and he will be out of the loop for the summer in all likelihood. He would also no doubt play a full IPL season, which would not help remedial work. The best bet might be to retain him in the squad, mindful that each of Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel and even Jonny Bairstow have made some claim for inclusion as well. Then allow Graham Gooch, whose full-time role as England batting coach begins with the tour preamble, to work intensively with him.
Possible England squad Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Bopara, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn, Bresnan, Panesar, Patel, Davies.