Strauss got the right start in third Test at Lord’s, feels Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain feels the Lord’s Test is more about Andrew Strauss and his 100th Test © Getty Images

By CricketCountry Staff

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London: Aug 17, 2012

 

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain feels day one of the Third Test was the perfect beginning to Andrew Strauss’ 100th Test.

 

Hussain said it is the kind of beginning he ‘needed and deserved’. Hussain believes the final Test is more about him and his 100th Test but after losing the toss, things looked bleak for the present England captain.

 

“The England captain didn’t know what to do for the best if he had won it. I reckon he must have looked at the wicket four times during the course of the morning: firstly when it looked a bit green and the weather was cloudy; but then at 10am with Jimmy Anderson when the sun was shining and the pitch suddenly looked white,” Hussain wrote in his column in the Daily Mail. 

 

Hussain said that Strauss would have opted to bat, had he won the toss, so it was a good toss to lose.

 

“It was very important that England made a good start because, by lunchtime, all the talk had turned from the man who is not here to those 11 who are playing for England.

 

The players looked almost visibly relieved that they were playing again, pleased to be out there trying to win a Test. A weight did seem to have been lifted from their shoulders.”

 

“Anderson was brilliant and Steven Finn, a good and brave selection, took three wickets before lunch without looking at his best.”

 

Hussain thinks the English side has never been about an individual.

 

“This England side have never been about one individual — it has always been about the team, which is why the events surrounding Kevin Pietersen have been so strange.” 

 

“It could easily have been the other way round if South Africa had bowled first — and we might all still have been talking about Pietersen and asking whether he would have made a difference.

 

England might well still be in need of Pietersen’s runs by the end of the game but for now that can wait. They have made a good start and, for that, I am delighted for their captain,” Hussain concluded.