http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013’s Test captain – Cricket News Update
Andy Flower, the England team's coach, has given his complete support to the under-fire English captain, Andrew Strauss. Flower wants Strauss to continue in his role as the Test captain of England’s national side.
Flower likes Strauss’ leadership skills and his determination towards making the English team better.
Heaping praise on the 35-year-old, Flower said, “He's a strong man and is obviously a very confident and secure bloke and he's been focusing on scoring runs and leading the team well. I'm very happy with him as the Test captain.”
Strauss, the left-handed batsman, has been under the radar and has received a lot of criticism from the media recently. England, prior to their win in Colombo, had lost four Test matches on the trot and the blame for the defeats fell upon the captain, in this case Strauss.
The 35-year-old has not been in the best of form lately and this made things worse for him and the English team. Critics held the opinion that England should look for alternatives if they were to get back to their winning ways.
However, despite all the mudslinging, Flower never doubted Strauss. When asked whether he ever saw the left-hander’s confidence faltering, the former Zimbabwean said, “No, not once. Of course we were aware of what was happening around us in the press, we're aware of that. He's got a few runs here and he's led the team outstandingly well.”
Strauss, the South African born cricketer who later moved to England to pursue his cricketing career, took over the captaincy some three years ago. England has had a lot of success under him, and they remained undefeated for two years and reached the summit of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Test rankings.
However, things started to fall apart during the tour of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033, where England suffered three successive defeats. The Poms would have relinquished their number one Test status had it not been for the Colombo win, as they also lost the opening fixture of the Sri Lankan tour.
Flower lauded the English players for bouncing back and leveling the series after being down by one match. He said, “It has been a tough winter but our focus has never wavered. Yes, it's been tough, but it's brilliant to come back and level the series.”
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