Strauss key to England harmony

Julian Guyer

That England now have a realistic chance of winning an Ashes series in Australia for the first time since 1986/87 says much for the leadership skills of Andrew Strauss.

His rise to the captaincy was not as smooth as that of fellow opening batsman Michael Atherton - dubbed ‘Future England Captain’ early in his career at Lancashire - but the wait appears to have been worthwhile.

Educated at Radley — the English public school that produced Ted Dexter — Strauss’s batting approach bears few traces of the kind of amateur style associated with ‘Lord Ted’.

Home ground

Strong square on both sides of the wicket, left-hander Strauss took to Test cricket instantly, making a century and 83 on his debut against New Zealand at Lord’s, his Middlesex home ground, in 2004.

Such was the confidence of Nasser Hussain that the future of English batting was in safe hands, he promptly retired from international cricket.

Strauss’s under-stated, pragmatic, style made him a popular figure with team-mates and would serve him well when he did become captain.

Humiliation

Crucially, after the repeated humiliations of England batsmen at Australian hands, he passed the acid test by scoring two centuries in the 2005 Ashes series and, four years later, would make 161 as England beat the old enemy at Lord’s for the first time since 1934.

In between those series Strauss’s place had come under threat in New Zealand in 2008.

He’d scored ten centuries in his first 30 Tests but did not reach three figures again in his next 15 matches. In Napier he made a first innings nought but responded with an eight-hour 177 in a series-clinching victory.

Absence

Strauss’s first taste of the England captaincy had come two years earlier when he memorably described himself as the “stand-in for the stand-in” in the absence of the injured Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff.

But the selectors went with Flintoff in the subsequent Ashes series in Australia where England were thrashed 5-0.

England later opted for Kevin Pietersen in a bid to have one captain for all three formats of the game.

But when Pietersen was effectively sacked in early 2009 after a row with then coach Peter Moores, England turned to ex-Middlesex captain Strauss.

Importantly, Strauss and new coach Andy Flower, the former Zimbabwe batsman, were on the same wavelength, just as the successful partnership of Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher, also a former Zimbabwe batsman, had been during their time in charge of England.

A series loss in the West Indies - despite three Strauss hundreds — was not the easiest of starts but the team did not splinter into warring factions.

Although not given to bold public statements, Strauss is no pushover. Asked during the 2009 Ashes if Australia had lost their ‘aura’ Strauss said the current side had yet to acquire one following the retirements of such stars as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist.

Simple

It was no more than a simple statement of the facts and one backed up by events on the field where England, showing some of Strauss’s own resilience, recovered from a fourth Test thrashing at Headingley to win the series finale at The Oval.

LONDON, Friday (AFP)