England ready to resume battle

Andrew Strauss is back in form after scoring 88 © Getty Images

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Andrew Strauss believes England’s break since the last Test has enabled them to re-group and steel themselves for their historic bid to retain the Ashes.

Acting captain Strauss hit 88 as England drew their two-day match with Western Australia at the WACA, reaching 356 for four with nearly all the tourists’ major players scoring runs.

But as they begin to focus on this week’s third Test aiming to become the first England team in history to overturn a two-Test deficit, Strauss is confident they are in a better shape than they were in the aftermath of their heartbreaking defeat in Adelaide.

“Post Test match we were all really down, certainly as down as I’ve ever been on a cricket pitch because it was an important game and we didn’t play well enough on that final day,” explained Strauss, who led England in the absence of resting captain Andrew Flintoff.

“A couple of days off have been helpful and this game has been helpful just to get ourselves back on track. The equation is pretty simple for us now - we need to go out and play positive cricket and beat Australia at least twice in the next three games.

“There is a lot of determination in the camp and a lot of guys that feel they still have a point to prove in this series after not playing as well as they’d like to and we’ve got three games left to do it.

Alastair Cook made a century at the WACA © Getty Images

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“The squad is still very close together. We’re all in this together. We knew it was going to be tough at the start of the series and it’s a little bit tougher now, but we’ve got every intention of playing the sort of cricket we need to play in these last three games.”

Opening partner Alastair Cook also hit 106 while Ed Joyce contributed 73 and Chris Read finished unbeaten on 59, although wicketkeeping rival Geraint Jones suffered a first ball duck on an otherwise encouraging day for the tourists.

Strauss admitted: “For all the guys that haven’t played it was good to see them come out and perform well.

“Ed Joyce did well, Sajid bowled well and Chris Read did well and that’s encouraging because it means if there are any changes or if there are any injuries it means the guys have got a bit of form going into the Test match.

Ed Joyce was in impressive form in Perth © Getty Images

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“We’ve got as much as we could out of this game. The bowlers have had a long bowl in tough conditions and the batsmen spent some time out in the middle. Time constraints meant it was only a two-day game and it seems to have worked out pretty well for us.”

But recovering captain Michael Vaughan, who was playing in his first England match for eight months after long-standing knee problems, did not get to the crease.

“He was due to come in at number four but as the day wore on it became more about giving guys that maybe involved in the Test matches a run out in the middle so he slipped a bit down the order,” added Strauss.

“He was fit to bat and came through fielding really well and he was really happy with it so that’s encouraging. He realises it’s probably better for him to keep a fairly low profile at this stage and I think he’s concentrating on his recuperation, which appears to be going really well.”