Pakistan's upstarts, minus star spinner Saeed Ajmal (suspended) and left-arm quick Junaid Khan (knee), stormed to a 221-run win in the first Test in Dubai - as Australia's batsmen failed to make an impact.
The talk leading into the series was about Australia potentially reclaiming the number one Test ranking, however those hopes were dashed when Pakistan took a series lead in what is their 'home' series in the United Arab Emirates.
Now, Pakistan can move as high as third in the ICC standings with a series sweep, and stalk the Australians in second.
But coach Darren Lehmann was in no mood to talk ranking after the first Test loss, and insisted his side would improve facing the likes of spinners Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar - the pair combining for 14 of the 20 wickets.
"We hadn't seen too much of them to be perfectly honest," Lehmann said of Shah and Babar.
"I think you'll see a few different things in the second Test now we've seen them.
"We want to be quite positive where we possibly can but end of the day we didn't get to the stage of being positive because we lost our wickets very quickly in clumps.
"I think we were a little bit timid at stages and we've got to be a little bit more aggressive I would think."
The heat is on several members of Australia's top-to-middle order too, after Alex Doolan and captain Michael Clarke both failed to make an impact with the bat in Dubai.
Lehmann's bowlers are not without their own needs to improve, after debutant Steve O'Keefe (four) was the tourists' highest wicket-taker.
Mitchell Johnson (three) gave the Australians some early spark with the ball, and battled bravely in the second inning, but experienced heads Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon failed to trouble the Pakistanis.
The second Test gets underway on Thursday.