England cannot afford to be complacent, feels Andrew Strauss – Cricket News Update
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964, feels that his team still needs to improve in order to maintain the number one ranking in Test cricket and that the on-going series against Pakistan is going to be a massive challenge for the English team.
The Test series between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and England started today with the first match at Dubai, and the Poms were not off to a great start as they were dismissed for a mere 192 in the first innings, after electing to bat.
England snatched the number one Test ranking from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 last year as Andrew Strauss and company whitewashed the Men in Blue in a four match series. However, there have been some question marks over England’s ability to do well in Asian conditions; where
the ball does not move that much off the wicket or in the air.
Strauss believes that there are some very good teams in international cricket at the moment that can challenge England’s number one ranking in future. This is the reason why he feels that the English team needs to improve all the time and not take things
for granted.
The England captain said, "It's about pushing further. If you remain stagnant, others will catch you. There's a lot of scope for improvement, I will be very disappointed if anyone sits back thinking we are the finished article, clearly we're not.”
He added that Pakistan may have a slight edge in the series because of the conditions and experience of playing in the UAE, but claimed that his team has had good preparation and they are looking forward to the challenge posed by the Green Shirts.
“Pakistan have played a lot more cricket out here than we have. But things are quite even in that respect. We've had a really good build-up. We're pretty comfortable with what we think the conditions are going to be like. But there's always that element
of stepping into the unknown when you haven't played a Test match in a particular ground," the left handed opener added.
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