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Quick singles: the importance of having Andrew Strauss

I've written before about not just doing longish posts here but never actually lived up to it.

So here's an attempt to actually start a new series and (very cheesily) I'm calling it quick singles. A single thought about any aspect of the game, the players, or administrators.

To kick us off is a player I never warmed up to really though I've always admired his fighting spirit as a batter and his attitude as England captain. In a world not governed by stardom, Strauss (and not Cook) would have held the record for captaining England most often in Test cricket. And now that he's at the helm (so to speak) of English cricket in a different capacity, he's been a really progressive thinker. Whether it's the emphasis on white ball cricket (and the results are there to see) or being much more forthright about what the best decisions are for the team (eg Buttler captaining in Bangladesh), Strauss has pulled no punches.

This latest call to let different groups of players stay for different periods in the IPL clearly bears the Strauss stamp and is a refreshing change. It's not going to be straightforward but just for the thinking he's brought to bear, I hope that England can win the Champions Trophy at home this summer.

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