| Player: | AJ Strauss |
DateLine: 4th September 2006
England skipper Andrew Strauss is confident that his team will improve in time for next year's World Cup after yet another one-day defeat against Pakistan.
England have won just four of their last 21 limited overs internationals and were outplayed by Pakistan in their second match of their one-day series on Saturday.
But Strauss is adamant that England's present one-day woes can only make his team stronger as they build towards next year's World Cup in the West Indies, which gets underway in March.
England will also be stronger when players like Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Liam Plunkett and Jimmy Anderson return from injury, Stauss said.
"The World Cup is still a long way away," stressed Strauss. "There are a lot of guys still early in their one-day careers, and we can only get better. I expect us to get a lot better by the time of the World Cup. There is no point chasing your tail and looking for different tactics. We know that if we do everything correctly we will win. We just haven't done that so far. There is a real feeling among our team that we want to show what we can do."
