Pacemaker James Anderson said England may have to be “creative” to win the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
Pakistan have not lost any of the four matches played in Rawalpindi since Test cricket returned to the country.
Two of them were drawn – the match against Australia in March saw only 14 wickets fall.
Anderson told BBC Sport: “We have a captain and a manager who don’t want draws. We don’t play for draws.”
Captain Ben Stokes and manager Brendon McCullum have urged England to play aggressively since taking charge at the start of the summer.
The approach has yielded six wins from seven matches but will now be contested in the contrasting conditions of Pakistan, where England are set to play their first Test for 17 years.
“We don’t know how it’s going to play out. Traditionally it’s flat,” Anderson, 40, said.
“We’re going to go out and try to win the game – maybe we’ll have to get creative with how we do it.”
England halted their tours of Pakistan after gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009, only returning in September for a T20 series which the visitors won 4-3.
In the years that followed, Pakistan hosted the United Arab Emirates in England. Over two series, England lost five Tests, drew one and won none.
Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, is the only member of the current squad to tour Pakistan in 2005 but admitted there was little knowledge he could impart to his teammates.
“It’s great to be back,” he said. “Seventeen years is a long time. It would be wrong if I said ‘the pitch is going to play like that, or that’s what to expect’.
“It’s a completely different team we play against, completely different conditions. It’s about adapting when we go out.”
Tests in Pakistan are usually attritional affairs, far removed from the action-packed nature of the English summer – the entire 2-1 series win over South Africa included just nine days of play.
When Australia beat Pakistan 1-0 here earlier this year, they did so in the final session of Matchday 5 of the Third Test, after the opening two matches were drawn.
McCullum said Monday his team was happy to risk losing to win.
Anderson said: “There will be times when we have to absorb the pressure. We understand that.
“But there will be times when we have to put the pressure back on the opponent and the skill we are trying to develop is knowing when to do that.
“With the ball we try to take wickets. The captain and the coach made it very clear – every time you run bowling it’s about taking wickets. It’s not about controlling pace, but how we are going to get 20 wickets.”
