| Player: | AJ Strauss |
Andrew Strauss created history on his debut against New Zealand in 2004 when he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord's on his Test debut. Also, he is only the fifth player to have scored their first Test and one-day international hundreds on the same ground, and later added a century there in his first game as captain of England as well. He is a fee flowing batsman who likes to attack once set and can play a variety of shots. In only his first full season in charge at his county in 2003, he accumulated an astonishing 1400 runs, which was one of the major reasons why he was handed over the captaincy of the side once KP was dethroned. He made his ODI debut in 2003-04 against Sri Lanka while on tour. He cemented his place in the team with a hundred against the West Indies on his first one-day appearance in front of his home crowd at LordÂ’s, again. In the same season, he scored a phenomenal 656 runs, and bettered it next year, when in 2005, he helped England win the 2005 Ashes series, overcoming both Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne to record two more centuries in England's historic win. The following summer he became England's captain by default, after both Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff were ruled out with injuries. But, the following winter in Australia, he suffered a prolonged loss of form, managing a total of two fifties in 20 innings on tour. That led to him being dropped at the start of the 2007 World Cup before he eventually regained his place in a struggling top order. He scored a gritty 177 in the third test against New Zealand in 2008, helping his team win 2-1, cemented his spot for the 2008 summer. He was one of the few batsmen who looked in form in England's tour of the Windies early this year. He was the highest scorer for the English side with 541 runs at 67.62. He hit three hundreds in the series with the highest score of 169.