Strauss: We must forget our Tigers’ mauling
ANDREW STRAUSS has urged his England side to forget their humiliating defeat to Bangladesh and complete a series win at Edgbaston today.
The Tigers rallied to their first ever win over England in 20 attempts on Saturday to leave the series delicately poised at 1-1 going into today’s decider.
For England, defeat came on the back of a renaissance in limited-overs cricket, given their World Twenty20 success and series victory over Australia.
That said, England have now lost three of their last four matches and skipper Strauss is keen for his side to build on their recent resurgence, while identifying the areas in which they can improve.
“We lost the last two against Australia and now we’ve lost this one but I’m still very happy in this one-day set-up,” he said. “We’re still very, very buoyant as a group of players but you need to learn from your mistakes. There are a few to learn from here.”
He added: “I wouldn’t have thought we were complacent but at the same time we have to ask ourselves why. Was it just one of those days? Did we prepare well enough? Were we clear enough in what we were trying to do on that wicket? Did we have a hand in our own dismissals? If we did, we need to learn from that.”
Meanwhile, England have called up Essex batsman Ravi Bopara for today’s one-dayer, at the expense of the injured Ian Bell.
Bell was ruled out for around six weeks after fracturing his fifth metatarsal when fielding during the five-run defeat on Saturday.
Bopara earned the last of his 50 ODI caps in the Champions Trophy in September 2009 and it likely to go straight into the starting line-up in place of Luke Wright with Tim Bresnan also expected to return.