So rather than be told his international career is in limbo again - Salisbury's 14 Tests have spread over eight years - he must be encouraged to show what he can do at this level, and that means Nasser Hussain has to take off the kid gloves.
I can't believe the fields Salisbury has asked for, or been given, in this series. The England captain may believe he is being kind by posting men deep on both sides of the wicket to protect his spinner when he drops short.
But you are basically telling the opposition that either the bowler has no confidence in his own ability, or the captain doesn't, or possibly both. That's cruel.
The fields Salisbury has been bowling to are those you would give a 14-year-old in his first big club game. Every delivery counts in Test cricket and you shouldn't even be thinking about bowling bad balls because you don't want to show the opposition any hint of weakness. Nasser needs to get hold of Salisbury and tell him he was picked for the tours because he is England's best leg-spinner and, as an experienced 30-year-old, he needs to accept responsibility.
He should then set a field for him with a couple of close catchers, a ring saving one on the off-side and just one man out at deep backward square-leg. Anything else plays into the hands of Pakistan.
Hopefully, Salisbury will get a long spell on what is likely to be a flat pitch in Karachi, build up some rhythm, and put the batsmen under pressure. Leg-spinners do need plenty of overs and, to be fair, he hasn't bowled a lot on tour.
Another reason we must stick with him is that in terms of his confidence it would be all but impossible to drop him here and then take him to Sri Lanka.
And at this late stage it would be difficult to replace him. Tufnell is a left-armer like Giles, and young Lancashire leg-spinner Chris Schofield hasn't had any serious bowling since September - best to leave him on the A tour to the West Indies.
While no one is pretending Salisbury will ever be a Shane Warne, leg-spinners do win Test matches and he needs a few more games to really find out if he's got what it takes at the highest level.
