Dubai: England got down to business as Alastair Cook & Co trained hard at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Academy in Dubai Sports City on Friday under the watchful eyes of Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene, who has been roped in by the team as their batting consultant to counter Pakistan’s spin attack in the upcoming series.

Speaking to Gulf News on having Jayawardene, hailed as one of the finest players of spin, as a guide, Cook said: “It is a huge boost to have a man of his skill. Over the years he scored over 25,000 runs, which is an incredible achievement and the way he played spin in particular. We cannot always just focus on tackling spin as the seamers too did well in the last series. To get Mahela on board and his experience and knowledge is great. Also he knows Trevor Bayliss (head coach) and Paul Farbrace (assistant coach) very well, so he’s fitted in very well. We will surely pick Mahela’s brain a bit.”

After the team sweated it out for nearly three hours in hot conditions, an obvious question was on how his men would cope with the weather. Cook answered with a smile: “I started with a cold as I left England and I think that’s pretty much gone already. It is warm, something we have to get accustomed to, so the first two training sessions tend to be hard work. We will get used to it, but it is very warm. That’s part of the conditions we’ve got to face. Pakistan are probably a bit more used to it.”

Asked who would be his seventh new opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss (he is now director of England cricket), Cook did not disclose if it will be a toss up between Mo’en Ali or Alex Hales. “Whichever side we pick, they have a great opportunity of doing something we haven’t done for a while — which is getting a steady opening partnership. I think at this stage we have probably got a fair idea whom we might play. We have got a few days of practice and couple of warm-up games (in Sharjah against Pakistan A next week) to get under the belt before we got to select that last team. It could get down to the bowling point of view — whether we want the extra pace bowler or extra spinner or we want an extra batter and it could get down to one of those types of decisions and then who opens the batting could be consequent to that decision.”

Cook had played in the last series against Pakistan which England lost badly under Strauss. When asked about it, he said: “On that last tour, we probably should have won that series. We had opportunities. We had to chase 140 twice on good wickets and we should have done that. Credit to Pakistan. They hung in there in that series, and then really won the critical moments well. That can be the way in these conditions — the game can turn very quickly.”

Cook does not believe that Pakistan spin attack will be weak without Saeed Ajmal as he believes Yasir Shah is a bowler to be respected. “He (Shah) had an outstanding start to his Test career. Sixty wickets in 10 games is a great effort. Obviously, Saeed was a great bowler as well. To leave out a guy like him goes pretty well for us. Those are guys who have done pretty well against us. I don’t think it weakens or strengthens them anyway. It’s always when we play Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka spin plays a role.”

About the conditions in the UAE, Cook said it was pretty similar to the subcontinent. “Anything that’s gone bad were the number of lbws — the highest they had ever been in any series. But quick spin, back of a length and really skidding on — there wasn’t really much turn but that was a big difference for me. The pitches didn’t quite deteriorate like some subcontinent pitches do — they turned a little bit more without really turning like they did in Mumbai in 2012.”