Andrew Strauss: Silent Nemesis

Andrew Strauss became the 100th cricketer to make 4000 runs. But Strauss has many tags attached to him, including being England’s talisman when England were on a high. England have never lost a Test when Strauss has made a century. Yet he lost out on the England’s captaincy. Can he be England’s lucky charm again?
Andrew Strauss did feel distraught at being passed up for the post of the skipper of the England team. However, he knew that his chances had dimmed after being dropped from the one day side. With Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood relinquishing their roles, the ECB was looking to appoint a single captain for all three formats of the game. That being the case, Strauss did not stand a chance given that his only spot in the framework of England cricket was that of the Test opener.
But Strauss has been a team man from the beginning. Such has been his extraordinary contribution in the team that he was considered a talisman when England and Vaughan were swinging high, especially during 2005 that also capped an uncharacteristic Ashes victory. The man simply would not let England slip. Every time he made a century, England have not lost the Test.
In the aftermath of the terror strikes in Mumbai, England left in a huff and there was a period when it seemed less likely that a full strength England team would not return to India. But they did and that brought about the first day of the Test.
England did little to redeem themselves in the one day internationals, eventually losing to India 5-0. Given the mental turmoil involved, England were not, cricket wise, expected to bounce back. That they did for the first half on day one of the first Test between India and England at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is due largely to the role played by their openers.
While Alastair Cook was playing the role of the perfect foil, Strauss was clearly the man leading from the front. His century, the thirteenth of his Test career, took England forward to a position of strength. That they eventually allowed the advantage be wrested away is another matter. His century has not only been important from England’s perspective but also from his own. Strauss has not been able to capture some of the form that made him England’s talisman in the first place.
Perhaps he could not have shown more grit and gumption than in troubled times for England and the rest of the world and that too, as his skipper in still cementing his plans for the future.