Happy England determined to finish job

Monday, 3 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

He says it’s been one of his easiest series as England skipper, but Andrew Strauss isn’t done inflicting Ashes misery on Australia’s cricketers.

Despite retaining the coveted urn with a comprehensive win over Australia in Melbourne, Strauss says he’s wary of his team feeling they’ve done their job going into the final Test at the SCG on Monday.

An Australian victory would level the series at two wins apiece and for all the joy of keeping the Ashes in English hands, Strauss believes such a result would be disappointing in a summer where the tourists have dominated.

“It’s one of the challenges on the last game of the tour when you think about getting on the plane and seeing your family,” Strauss said.

“We’re not in that position at the moment but there are other reasons for us not to take our eye off the ball in this Test match and it’s important we don’t do that. “Every Test is a test for you as a side. This one in particular because the Ashes are coming home and it’s easy to take your foot off the pedal.

“That’s something I’m desperate to avoid. The guys have been excellent in practice but we need to transfer that to the pitch. “It’s a challenge for us and I’d be very disappointed if we don’t respond well to that challenge.

“After Melbourne, I think it would leave a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth if we weren’t able to play well here this week.” Strauss says stressing about his players’ mental approach is about the only worry he’s had on a tour where fringe players such as Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan have risen to the challenge when asked to replace Stuart Broad and Steven Finn respectively.

“It’s certainly been one of the easier tours I’ve been on in regard to captaincy. We’ve not really had any issues off the park,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me because it’s been the case for 12-18 months. “What has been very re-assuring is generally our cricket’s been good so we’ve had less to worry about too.

“But ultimately we’ve still got the end of this tour - this match and the one-dayers - so there’s still plenty of time for us to be challenged.”

Strauss says just like they did in Perth following a big loss in Adelaide, he fully expects Australia to fight back hard in Sydney, even with a couple of debutants - Michael Beer and Usman Khawaja - in their ranks. “You usually need a spinner here in Sydney so we expected Beer to come in ... they’re going to be some different challenges there for us and we need to be well prepared for those,” he said. “Khawaja’s coming in in very good form and sometimes it could be a bit of a release knowing you have nothing to lose. “I think they’ll come back at us pretty hard this week and if there are any weaknesses we can expose, hopefully we can do that quickly.”