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.

It does not happen very often that an over-hyped phenomenon is able to live up to its pre-match banter. Even if some elements of the talk come true; the hype generally gets the better of the action. But Saeed Ajmal's role in the ongoing test series between England and Pakistan has somewhat contradicted this instinctively believed notion. The complete clueless-ness of the English batsmen to tackle the guile of Saeed Ajmal is bringing back memories of a rampant Shane Warne, who had Englishmen dancing to his beat in the 1990s, and while comparisons between Ajmal and Warne may yet be premature, there is no doubt the Pakistani offie is affecting players both mentally and on the pitch.

Not surprisingly, some of the efforts to counter the threat of Ajmal started before even the first ball of this series was bowled. Some debates, not necessarily arguments or allegations got instigated from the UK, led by the great Bob Willis regarding the training on the bowling of the doosra in English academies and utilizing the 15 degree bend rule in an optimized manner. Some other politically correct statements regarding the role of the ICC; which cannot be entirely ignored, whiffed at the discomfort faced by the English batsmen. That these comments didn't diminish after the Dubai test made it crystal clear that this debate was here to stay.

Despite Pakistan having already won its seventh series out of 11 against England since 1983-84, there is still a lot to play for in the third and final Test which starts in Dubai on Friday 3 February. For England, the equation is very simple and straightforward – it has to win the Test to be guaranteed a number-one spot at the 1 April cut-off date and with it a US$175,000 prize which is presented annually to the side which tops the Reliance ICC Test Championship table at the cut-off date.

If England wins the Test, it will finish on 120 ratings points and will top the table irrespective of how South Africa's three-Test series in New Zealand, to be played from 7-27 March, pans out.

Crafty off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has risen one more place and his spin partner Abdur Rehman has broken into the top 10 for the first time in his career in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers which were released on Sunday after the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi, Adelaide and Napier Tests. Saeed followed up his 10-97 in the Dubai Test with seven for 130 in the Abu Dhabi Test which was enough to put him ahead of England's fast bowler James Anderson in second position.

The 34-year-old has earned 50 ratings points for this achievement giving him a career-best rating, and he now leads Anderson by 25 ratings points but still trails number-one ranked Dale Steyn of South Africa by 84 ratings points.