THE CAPTAIN
Andrew Strauss won 100 Test caps for England between 2004 and 2012 and was captain in 50 of them. He averaged 40.91 in all Tests, impressive for an opening batsman, which dropped only to 40.76 when he was captain. He led England to two Ashes wins on the way to reaching the top of the Test rankings in August 2011 but retired a year later after a 2-0 series defeat at home to South Africa, dogged by strained relations with Kevin Pietersen and Textgate, a series of messages Pietersen exchanged with a South Africa player in which Strauss was described as a “doos”.
Strauss’s bid to rescue the one-day team will be helped by his 127 ODI caps. After the pitiful World Cup campaign he has four years and two weeks before the 2019 tournament in England.
THE COMMENTATOR
His most notable moment with Sky Sports came when he thought he was off-air during the MCC v Rest of the World match last summer, but Australian viewers who had not taken a commercial break heard a pithy yet cutting assessment of Pietersen.
DIRECTOR, ENGLAND CRICKET
Strauss will be unveiled in the new role, complete with comma, on Tuesday. At 38 he should be in touch with the demands of modern international cricket. “He would do what he did as captain. There’s been a lot going on in English cricket in the past year and a half and he would bring organisation and structure going forward,” said his former Middlesex colleague Angus Fraser last week. “He is a consistent, thoughtful presence.”
