“We must solve the puzzle of how to play spin in Asia if England are to stay No 1 and be recognised as an all-time great team,” Swann said in his column for The Sun.

Swann said the only reason behind their team getting whitewashed at the hands of the Pakistan team was that they didn’t play the Pakistani spin bowlers well, and the rest were only excuses. “People are blaming our 3-0 defeat against Pakistan on all sorts of things — ranging from our two-month break before Christmas to complacency after reaching the top of the world rankings.”

“To me, they are just excuses. We lost because we did not bat well enough against Pakistan's spin bowlers,” he added. He said his team aspires to become cricket’s one of the all time great team and leave a legacy behind them, but that won’t happen until they learn to play complex spin bowlers like Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman.