Strauss Has It All To Do

After days of speculation Peter Moores has been sacked as England coach, Kevin Pieterson has resigned as England captain and Andrew Strauss has already been named as KP's successor. All of this because of a disagreement over Micheal Vaughan's, correct, exclusion from the test squad to tour West Indies next month. With all of this "chaos" over the past week, it leaves Andrew Strauss with a tough job of reuniting a divided changing before the West Indies tour and, most importantly, the Ashes series next summer.

I do not doubt the new skipper's ability to piece together the puzzle that is the England camp but he needs the backing of his senior members. Players such as Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Paul Collingwood need to get behind Strauss and give him the backing he needs and deserves. This situation will have a big impact on some of the younger, less experienced players and the seniors need to show strong character to put this ugly mess behind them and start planning for the Ashes.

Believe it or not but this situation could have a positive affect on the team in the long run. Star players have rarely made great captains for England and I do not believe that Pieterson would have been an exception. England need to get the best out of KP and for them to do that he needs to be focused on his own game.

Ian Botham's form dropped, dramatically, when he was made captain of the England side in the 1980s and his reign as captain didn't last for long as a result of this poor form. It wasn't until he was relieved of his duty that he started to score runs galore.
As long as KP still wants to play then we have nothing to worry about on that front.

However, I would like to bring attention to selection. I would like to think that the new skipper would want to put his own stamp on the team and the players playing. Promising young batsmen such as Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara have been waiting for a chance to cement a permanent place in the team and after their impressive displays in the ODI series against India, I believe they deserve a run out.

Another selection issue is the current, "lack-lustre", bowling attack, consisting of Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar, James Anderson, Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad. The only member of that line up that has earned an unchallenged place in the team is "Freddie" Flintoff, other than that, they are all walking on a tight rope.

Steve Harmison is hit and miss but you accept that as his "hit" moments can change a game completely but Monty, "Jimmy" Anderson and Staurt Broad all performed below par in the India test series and they should be lucky to keep their places in the team.

These are exciting times for English Cricket, with the Ashes series looming, England need to show unity in the West Indies and start building towards the summer to retain the Ashes.