No cloud in England’s twenty20 silver lining

ENGLAND’S World Twenty20 win has raised questions about the position of test captain Andrew Strauss.

Will he have lost the dressing room? Will they still feel like “his team”? Will the world champions respect his leadership?

However asking those questions shows a lack of understanding of modern cricket or, simply, a failure to read a teamsheet.

Those questions have as much relevance as asking if Chelsea winning the Premier League title will make Fabio Capello’s job as England football manager difficult.

The England football team shares as many players with Chelsea – John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole – as twenty20 world champions who are dead certs for Strauss’ first test team of the summer against Bangladesh on Thursday.

Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood and Stuart Broad have both been rested in preparation for next winter’s Ashes and 50-over World Cup.

Tim Bresnan is almost certain to play, but Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Graeme Swann are the only guaranteed starters, with Morgan only playing in Collingwood’s absence.

Currently Strauss does not care what Michael Lumb or Michael Yardy think of his captaincy.

It is in the 50-over that Strauss will skipper more of the players who have the world champion notch on their career bedpost.

Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright will feature in that side, which Strauss himself was not even a regular part of until he became captain.

50-over cricket is where England struggle most, failing to combine the best elements of their test and twenty20 teams.

So the board, the players, the media and the nation could do a lot worse than unite behind an Ashes-winning leader.

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