Strauss the light which fails to shine

It was three years ago when, in the nets preceding the opening Test match against New Zealand at Lord's, that Michael Vaughan suffered one of his myriad knee problems, having it buckle under him as he faced a left-arm spinner. In came the Middlesex captain, the still relatively little-known Andrew Strauss. Successful Test debuts seem to be the in thing at the moment, just ask Matt Prior or Alistair Cook, but it was Strauss who began the trend, only Nasser Hussain's running preventing him from opening up with twin centuries. In one fell swoop, he both ended the career of one of England's most long-serving batsmen and most resourceful captains - Hussain, who retired after completing England's victory with an unbeaten century, and broke the opening partnership between Vaughan and Trescothick which had served England more than well after Mike Atherton's retirement in 2001.

The boot was on the other foot today as Strauss, captain at Lord's, made way in that respect for Vaughan, who dismissed the suggestions of a whole swathe of pundits, those whose opinion is generally sought and those whose is not, that he and England would be better served by him finding form with his county Yorkshire, with a century on his return after over 18 months out of Test cricket. England fans will be pleased to see that the passage of time has not dulled his batting lustre, although clearly his propensity for failing to capitalise on three-figure scores, something almost universally shared with his England colleagues (out of whom only Collingwood has gone past 200 in Tests) has also survived. Although it took some time for him to get going, once he had started to get his feet moving, he reminded the Yorkshire faithful of why he was once ranked the world's best batsman, reeling off some of his trademark off-drives and being typically savage with the short ball. It is easy to forget that Vaughan, universally recognised as an extremely astute captain, is also a batsman of rare talent and poise, and England are a stronger team when he plays and makes runs.

It is not often that Kevin Pietersen can fire off an unbeaten century and not expect to see his face in the back-pages the next day. Still, overshadowed as it was, his innings, fortunately prolonged by Chris Gayle's inability to keep his foot behind the bowling crease when he encroached on the delivery which had Pietersen stranded down the pitch and stumped, was equally gripping. He never really hit top gear, but such is his power and eye that it hardly mattered, as he continued to punish balls both which deserved it and those which didn't. More significantly, he appears to have added a drop of discretion and humility to his already potent mixture of talents. The extravagant haircuts are gone, and both centuries this series have been celebrated discreetly, with overexcited bat-waving at a minimum. One would never want to suppress or rein in a free spirit like Pietersen, and indeed there is no danger of this happening, but his maturity has been noticeable of late, evidenced by his shutting up of shop late on in the day's play, making sure that he preserved his wicket for the next day and giving himself the chance to regain his rightful place as the star turn by nailing the really big score which has thus far eluded him.

But while Pietersen prospered and Vaughan did enough to force the critics to find another matter to pick over, Andrew Strauss again failed to register. His is now the only position in England's top seven from which a century has failed to materialise in the three innings so far, and he still only has one Test half-century since last summer. When Strauss does well, it seems, the team prospers too; they won each of his first seven Tests, and sealed a momentous series triumph in South Africa where he was the best batsman with three centuries and a tally in excess of 650 runs in the 5 match series. Although he had his troubles against the Australians in 2005, he nevertheless finished as the only batsman on either side to register a second century. The Oval Test will forever be remembered for Pietersen's king of rearguard efforts, but it was Strauss' first day ton which held together a creaking England effort and ensured that Pietersen had a game to save.

Since then, however, England's form, and Strauss', has declined. On the troubled post-Ashes tour of the sub-continent, his only century, in Mumbai, co-incided with England's amazing victory, while he was back in form for the Pakistan series last summer as he led England to victory and prospered to the tune of 2 centuries and over 400 runs. When England fretted over whom to give the captaincy to for the Ashes tour, the main focus was on Flintoff; how would he react if stripped of the captaincy he felt entitled to? No thought was given to Strauss and how it might affect him. In the end England lost both ways: Flintoff was weighed down by being made to do everything (including wicket-keeping if you count Harmison's first ball), while Strauss had by far his most miserable experience in international cricket, something from which he appears to have not yet emerged. The problems were part technical; the Australians were disciplined enough to almost totally deprive him of hit pet area behind square on the off-side, while they constantly kept him waiting for the short ball which nabbed him twice at the Gabba and never materialised thereafter. But maybe the loss of the captaincy affected Strauss more than we realised and exacerbated his problems on a universally troubled tour.

What is clear is that Strauss needs to get back on track, and fast. With Cook continuing from where he left off before his unhappy Ashes tour and Vaughan back in form and fitness, there is only one place up for grabs in the top four, with Pietersen surely untouchable. Paul Collingwood is likely to continue to provide England with the runs they need when they need them most, while Ian Bell had a significantly better Ashes than Strauss and put runs on the board at Lord's. With Matt Prior proving himself as a batting 'keeper, Flintoff, when he returns, is likely to resume at 6, meaning that someone has to miss out. That is almost certainly between Strauss, Bell and Collingwood and, if the talismanic all-rounder is passed fit to play on his home patch, Strauss, barring a second innings century, will be most at risk, based on performance. That situation excludes Marcus Trescothick, currently out of the frame, but likely to return to the one-day side some time this summer, and a proven performer at Test level should he feel ready to return.

Overall, England enjoyed a productive first day, while their final total will depend heavily on the current partnership sticking around tomorrow morning. Barring more interruptions by the weather, likely on Sunday, England can have no excuses for not knocking over a West Indies batting line-up which has lost Chanderpaul and may be a man down, with Sarwan having injured his shoulder against one of the advertising boards. England cannot afford another bowling shambles like they produced last week and, sensibly, Ryan Sidebottom has been picked to add some control and a line of attack which many batsmen find uncomfortable. West Indies, aided by the weather and Hoggard's injury, did well at Lord's, but England are significantly the better team and need to stamp their authority here and achieve some success without the help of Strauss, something in time they may well have to learn to do.