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Leading England in Australia will be toughest challenge of Joe Root's career, says Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss has warned Joe Root that captaining England in Australia this winter will be the greatest challenge of his career.
Strauss is one of only three men to have led England to Ashes wins in England and Australia, and as the team’s current director of cricket he is invaluable source of information for Root, who also has the experience and ideas of Michael Vaughan to tap into as well.
With an Australian coach as well in Trevor Bayliss, Root is not short of good advice but Strauss knows from his own successful campaign in 2010-11 that nothing prepares you for the life of being an England captain in Australia.
“It’s the biggest challenge an England captain will ever have. There’s all sorts of reasons for that. A lot of them are off-field,” said Strauss. “You are living in this incredible bubble for a long period of time, everything is directed towards you as England captain in terms of being responsible for what’s happening on the pitch. But also the conditions in Australia are very changeable from one venue to another, to different periods in the game and you need to be able to adapt to those conditions you see in front of you.
“That is why at the back end if you are able to win – certainly for me it was my greatest moment as an England captain, and I think Joe will be incredibly motivated to do that early in his captaincy career. He’s got a great chance, he’s started brilliantly. He’s shown that he’s very much his own man, he’s got his own way of thinking about the game and that will stand him in very good stead in Australia.”
Strauss will join the England selection panel next week to pick the Ashes squad and admits there are concerns over the consistency of the side, particularly among the batsmen where the management have their most tricky decisions to make.
Those problems have to be settled in the three warm-up games that precede the first Test in Brisbane where many England Ashes campaigns have been sunk. Strauss made a three-ball duck in the first innings in Brisbane seven years ago, but a hundred in the second as England drew the game to set them up for the series win. On the last tour Mitchell’s Johnson’s destruction of a senior batsman in Jonathan Trott set a very different tone.
“There are two or three places up for grabs, which is never ideal and our consistency hasn’t been what we want – the two are probably pretty closely linked really, aren’t they? There are going to be opportunities for guys to make a very strong case for a long-term England career based on performing well when it really counts in Australia, but I’d be lying if I said we were going with absolute clarity on what our best XI is. We’re just not in that position at the moment.
“The reality is there are two teams with really strong assets and some vulnerabilities. Our challenge is to start the tour well. If we start well, hit the ground running and some of those guys who have not played a lot of Test cricket get an early score then I think we are in a great position to win.”
England will announce their bowling coach next week with a consultant set to be appointed for the Ashes series. Telegraph Sport revealed last week Shane Bond is England’s No 1 choice to work with the team in Australia and Strauss confirmed a permanent replacement for Ottis Gibson will be made in the new year. Strauss was speaking at Trent Bridge where England play West Indies tomorrow in the second Royal London one-day international having easily won the first game at Old Trafford by seven wickets. This series is a chance to restore confidence after the bitterly disappointing Champions Trophy semi-final defeat to Pakistan.
“The Champions Trophy was a missed opportunity because the confidence that comes from winning a global event is massive. Pakistan outplayed us and there are some lessons for us to learn about knockout cricket and you have to enter those games in the right frame of mind. There are no second chances.”
Strauss defended the England selectors, Mick Newell and Angus Fraser, from accusations of conflict of interest suggested by Sir Ian Botham this week after Durham lost their all-rounder Paul Coughlin to Nottinghamshire. Newell is director of cricket at Trent Bridge.
“He’s 100 per cent wrong if he’s implying that he’s gone there on the back of one of our selectors saying he’s got a better chance of playing for England coming to my county. I believe that if players are move from one county to another they are thinking about the quality of the club, what the club can offer them, their chances of playing in that team and how playing for that team might further their chances of playing cricket for England.”