Strauss under scrutiny as England slump

Test captain hopeful of turnaround.

GALLE: England captain Andrew Strauss faces close scrutiny of his batting and leadership skills as he attempts to keep his spin-foxed team on top of the world Test rankings.

England toppled India from the mantle with a memorable 4-0 whitewash on seaming pitches at home last year but have come unstuck on the spinner-friendly tracks of Asia over the last three months. The 75-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle was England’s fourth consecutive loss, following the embarrassing 3-0 hammering by Pakistan in the UAE.

England will slip to number two behind South Africa if they fail to win the second and final Test in Colombo from Tuesday. Among mounting concern for a badly bruised England is the form of their captain.

Strauss has gone 23 innings without a century, averaging a poor 28.5, and has managed just one three-figure knock in his last 48 innings. He made 26 and 27 in Galle.

“I feel in good form, but you’re judged on your performances and I haven’t performed well enough,” said the 35-year-old.

“My job is to score runs and I haven’t scored as many as I would’ve liked in the last 12 months or so. That’s very frustrating, but hopefully I will put it right next week.”

England’s batting coach Graham Gooch backed Strauss to come good as a batsman and saw no threat to his captaincy.

“As far as I’m concerned, Strauss is the best guy to captain England,” said Gooch.

“He’s also one of the two best opening batsmen in the country along with Alastair Cook. I have every confidence in him. I see the passion in him. I see the commitment every day on the training pitch trying to improve his game.”

Broad out of final Test

Stuart Broad was ruled out of the second and final Test with a calf strain and will immediately fly home.

Broad is also a doubt for the IPL, which starts next week.

Broad played in the first Test despite struggling with a sprain in his left ankle. He suffered the calf injury during the match.

“Broad will return to the UK for further assessment before beginning a rehabilitation programme,”  said England and Wales Cricket Board in a statement. England will not seek a replacement for Broad, leaving Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn in the reckoning to fill the vacant spot.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2012.