England captain Andrew Strauss admits he is under pressure to score runs
ahead of the start of the third Test against Sri Lanka today – but the
England captain insists a big score is just around the corner.
The 34-year-old has scored just 24 runs in three innings so far in this
series and there are concerns, after relinquishing the one-day
captaincy earlier this summer, his authority could be undermined if his
lean spell continues at the Rose Bowl.
However, Strauss came out fighting yesterday and said: ‘There is always
pressure on you to score runs. You’ve got to do everything you can and
ride the blows to a certain extent because you are not going to score
runs every time you bat.
“Over the last couple of years in both forms of the game my form has
been pretty good as captain. You can over-analyse these things but I’m
not going to fall into that trap.
“I’m feeling, psychologically, in a very good place and it’s just a matter of not getting too caught up in things.”
Strauss’ woes against left-arm seamers reared its head again during the
second Test when he was dismissed twice by Chanaka Welegedara. But the
opener has been in the nets trying to rectify the problem.
“I’ve done quite a lot of batting and worked on a few things,’ he added.
‘The most important of all these things is to have the right mindset.”
While Strauss admits he needs to find some form with the bat, he also
conceded tall paceman Stuart Broad – who shipped 100 runs before taking a
wicket in both of the first two Tests of this series – needs to raise
his game.
“We always want our bowlers to be taking a lot of wickets so in that sense it is [a concern],” he admitted.