Having suffered the indignity of a 10-wicket defeat in the first Test, England wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior is confident they won't make the same mistakes twice.

Bowled out for 192 in their first innings and then just 160 in their second, England were given a rude awakening in the opening match to their first Test since becoming the world's top ranked Test team against India last year.

Prior admitted the team were given a bit of a wake-up call by the result and that they would bounce back stronger.

"This performance has given us a real good slap in the face," said Prior.

"We're a proud team. We're a proud bunch of players. We're used to walking off the pitch, having inflicted the sort of defeat they inflicted upon us - so it was a very bitter pill to swallow.

"No one in this team enjoyed it one little bit.

"It's taken a few days to get over it, but now there is a steely determination that it will not happen again."

Spinner Saeed Ajmal was the man who did most of the damage for Pakistan, taking 10 wickets in the match. It was Ajmal's seven-for in the first innings that put England under the gun early on, a position from which they never recovered. Prior conceded that a repeat performance would be disastrous but that they can't focus on just one player.

"The obvious thing is how we play spin and how we play Saeed Ajmal," he said.

"But it's important we don't get caught up with just one bloke.

"Umar Gul came in and took wickets in the second innings, so we just need to improve [our general game], really."

Prior, who scored England's only half-century of the game with an unbeaten 70, refused to place blame on the Dubai pitch for his side's poor showing.

"It was a brilliant cricket wicket," he asserted.

"You expect to come over here and find it very flat and not a great deal in it for the bowlers.

"But the seamers got a bit of bounce and a bit of movement, and if you batted well and played good shots you got value for your runs.

"The pitch isn't one of the reasons that we lost.

"Shock results can happen.

"We're behind the eight ball now - we have to play good enough cricket to force results in these last two matches."

The two teams lock horns once more on Wednesday when the second Test gets underway in Abu Dhabi.