The curious case of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964
All eyes are set on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 starting from Thursday, May 17, 2012. The three match series will be played in England with the first match at Lord’s,
London.
The series holds great importance for Strauss, as some critics believe that it will decide where his position with England national team stands. High expectations are attached with the 35-year-old batter, however, only time will
tell whether Strauss meets these expectations or not.
Strauss has been the topic of discussion for quite some time. The 35-year-old’s lean patch with the bat has extended beyond anyone’s expectations. The South African born cricketer, who chose to represent England instead, will be
hoping to bury the ghosts once and for all by leading from the front in the upcoming Test series.
The English media has called for the axing of Strauss from the national team, and give the realms to someone like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026, who is already leading the One-Day side and has become the back bone of England’s Test team.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Michael-Paul-Vaughan-c76145, one of England’s most successful Test skipper who passed on the torch to Strauss after his retirement, has rubbished these claims and said, “As a captain, it's ridiculous to talk about Strauss' position. You only
get better as a captain: tactically and management wise.”
Nonetheless, even Vaughan, who is a great supporter of Strauss and his captaincy skills, has said that the batsman need to fire in the clash against the Caribbean’s otherwise things look loom for him.
Vaughan said, “What Strauss needs now is a score. He needs a big score. He's playing all right: his feet are going quite nicely and I don't see any technical flaws. But he needs to make the starts count.”
Another man who backs Strauss blindly is England’s coach, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 international said that as far as scrutinizing Strauss over his lack of performance is somewhat understandable, however, the left-handers
place in English team and not at all under any threat.
Flower said, “I think people are questioning him for not scoring heavy enough runs, and I can understand that. To say that he was close to resigning, retiring or being dropped is inaccurate, because he wasn't close to being left
out, he isn't close to retiring or resigning.”
Strauss has full backing of his side. No individual in the English contingent believes that the left-hander should be left out. They defend their skipper’s form by saying that he is just unlucky not to score.
Strauss’ misfortune with the bat started about one and half year back. Prior to that the left-hander was scoring runs at his will and was a major contributor in England’s wins. However, since the start of 2011 things started to
fell apart for Strauss, he found it hard to score runs, though he was getting the starts every now and then but he failed to convert them into something meaningful.
Since 2011, Strauss has played 13 Tests and in those games the left-hander has merely scored 580 runs at an average of 27.61. It has been nearly 50 innings, since the last time Strauss got into triple figures.
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