Andrew Strauss' difficult Middle East tour finished in a 3-0 Test series whitewash, and he can only wish his team-mates better limited-overs fortunes against Pakistan.

Captain Strauss and coach Andy Flower have much to ponder about how to make sure the nightmare campaign in the desert is a mere blip for the world's number one Test side and not the start of a significant slide.

But as Strauss prepared to move on - the limited-overs squads were due to be announced even as he completed his packing this morning - there is much unfinished business here for those he leaves behind.

Monday's 71-run loss in the final Test was a ninth defeat in England's last 10 international fixtures, across all three formats.

Strauss is no longer directly concerned with the limited-overs side of that unhealthy equation, having retired from 50-over internationals after England's elimination from the World Cup last year.

But he said: "It's important that the guys who are here for the one-dayers allow that format of the game to help them rediscover form.

"Those of us who aren't involved in the one-dayers [must] start turning our attention towards Sri Lanka and the particular challenges that's going to hold for us.

"They won't be the same as here. They might be similar, but they'll be slightly different."

England's Test disappointments in the United Arab Emirates have been almost exclusively down to batting failures against Pakistan spin, in alien climes.

It is by no means certain those same problems will not persist in four one-day internationals and three Twenty20s over the next three weeks - or for that matter, in Strauss' next overseas Test assignments in Sri Lanka next month and then India in the autumn.

"We need to learn the lessons from this, but we don't need to dwell on it," he said.

"We've got to sit back and look at the reasons why we did lose, and we've got to look at everything - our preparation, our training, our techniques, temperament issues.

"It would be wrong for us just to ignore all those things, but we've got to remain true as well to what has worked well for us in the past.

"Over the next week or two, I think it will become a bit clearer."

Collectively, England simply had no answer to the wiles of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman.

"The challenges here are quite unique, so you have to adapt," added Strauss.

"Also the Pakistan bowlers in particular are quite unique, a different type of spin bowler. It's quite hard to prepare for that without facing them.

"We regret the way we played against them in the first Test, because that allowed their confidence to grow and obviously affected ours to a certain extent.

"I think it's very important we do debrief this tour very thoroughly, as we would do on any tour, and learn some lessons and not walk away from anything if it's staring us in the face.

"But at the same time it's not all doom and gloom. You don't become a bad side overnight."