England captain cautions players to stay focused for upcoming Ashes Test in Australia
England’s cricket team captain Andrew Strauss warned his players not to think too much about the possibility of winning their first Australian series in 24 years, at the Ashes opening match in Brisbane on Thursday. He stressed that focus is key if they expect
to beat Australia in the upcoming match at the Gabba.
Strauss called it unwise for the players to get ahead of themselves and think about a potential Test win as if it had already happened, and he said that he wants his players to focus on nothing other than success in the first match of the Test at the Brisbane
Cricket Ground this week.
“To think of the finishing line now is naive at best and dangerous at worst, because there is so much cricket between now and then,” he told BBC sport.
The 33-year-old cricketer says that he understands the excitement about the possibility of a win, especially with reports of a weaker Australian team and an advantage for the England side, and the fact that England has not won a test in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in 24 years.
Nevertheless Strauss made clear that winning an Ashes Test requires hard work and dedication. "I'm not looking at that finishing post at the moment. I'm looking at tomorrow, and starting the series well."
Australia has five consecutive wins under its belt, broken only by a 1986 win for the former England skipper Mike Gatting in a 2-1 series triumph for England, and a loss to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in 1988.
Saying that it is often difficult to beat a team that has won successively, the way Australia has, Strauss said that past history suggests not many people manage to break these kinds of trends. He concluded that, “it's a great challenge for me and for the
team."
Strauss said that in order to win the Ashes you need to be focused and in good form, and summed up his perspective on the match, "If you want to win this Ashes series, you need to earn the right to do it over and over again. We're all just very keen to get
amongst it now."
Tags: