I believe England tours of the subcontinent were historically viewed as "difficult".... at least by some... but more for the supposedly grueling nature of the tour (and the debilitating effects of the heat, the travelling and the seemingly (back then) inevitable bouts of "Delhi Belly".

In truth though... Pakistan has not (recently) been anything like the callibre of side that it was... the Indian batting, whilst almost always good on paper, has not been good enough to carry a sometimes pretty limited attack... and Sri Lanka have been increasingly reliant on a few old hands.