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A bruised and battered England team will take on series winners Pakistan in the 3rd and final test of the series in Dubai, commencing on the 3rd of February. Despite Pakistan winning the series 2-0 against all odds, this match holds prime importance for the English team. Having climbed to the top of the test rankings following their 4-0 drubbing of India at home in August, England face the imminent threat of being displaced at the top of the ICC test rankings and thereby lose out on $175,000 as cash reward for the No.1 test side come the 1st of April. Any other result apart from an English victory will see the Poms leave their fate in the hands of a rampant South African team. A 3-0 win for South Africa in New Zealand later this year coupled with England's failure to win the 3rd test in Dubai could mean that England could lose out on pole position to the Proteas come the D-day, the 1st of April. Here is a look at what is in store for the two sides ahead of probably one of the most significant 'dead rubbers' in recent times.

England:

The English batsmen, without doubt have been at sixes and sevens against the Pakistani spin trio of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammed Hafeez and Abdur Rehman and it is imperative that the World No.1 side tries something out of the ordinary to break the shackles. Stuart Broad showed them one way of doing it in the second test match by adding a little bit of chutzpah to his otherwise textbook like technique. This might well be the way to go for the Poms in the 3rd test. With the pressure of the outcome of the series behind them, all indications from the camp are that we could see a lot more positivity from the English batsmen. The most crafty and probably the most adept of the English batsmen against spin, Ravi Bopara , is almost a certainty to feature in the playing XI for this game at the expense of the Eoin Morgan, who was bamboozled by spin in the previous games. The rest of the batting too seemed rather short of ideas to counter spin and will need to dig deep into their reserves to come up with something new to avoid further embarrassment.

England's bowling unit has lived up to expectations on this tour so far and the team management should be happy with the rewards they have brought collectively in alien conditions. Success for all the bowlers including the comeback man Monty Panesar in the second test is good news for England as at least that part of the side needs no tweaking at the moment.

Pakistan:

Pakistan will be absolutely over the moon at winning the series against all odds in Abu Dhabi and will be hoping that their golden run under the pragmatic captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq continues for a longer period of time. After having gone through a lot of off field controversies in recent times, the Pakistani team must be commended for their efforts especially after losing a lot of very talented players due to injury and disciplinary actions in the past couple of years. They should though, be wary of getting too complacent and letting England off the hook and will need to continue to put pressure on the Poms. The performance of young batsmen Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq when under immense pressure in Abh Dhabi will be refreshing for this Pakistani side and we could witness a more positive approach from them in the third test with the series already decided.

Pakistan's bowling thrived under spin friendly conditions in the second test and the make-up of the attack could remain the same for the third test in Dubai, which means that with similar conditions expected we could witness an encore in the third test with Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman ruling the roost over the English side once again.

Recent form:

England (L L W)
25-29 Jan 2012: lost to Pak by 72 runs
17th-21st Jan 2012: Lost to Pak by 10 wickets
18-22 Aug 2011: Beat Ind by an innings and 8 runs

Pakistan (W W W)
25-29 Jan 2012: beat Eng by 72 runs
17th-21st Jan 2012: beat Eng by 10 wickets
17th-21st Dec 2011: beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets

Likely XIs:

England: A Cook, A Strauss, J Trott, K Pietersen, I Bell, R Bopara, M Prior, S Broad, G Swann, M Panesar, J Anderson

Pakistan: T Umar, M Hafeez, A Ali, Y Khan, Misbah Ul Haq, A Shafiq, A Akmal, A Rehman, U Gul, A Cheema, S Ajmal

Pitch and Conditions: The wicket at the Dubai international stadium for the third test is expected to be similar to the one used for the first test of the series and will aid the spinners as the game progresses. This could spell doom for the English batsmen given their shoddy display against spin in this series.

Match Prediction: England will guts it out in Dubai and force a draw with some determined batting.