Andrew Strauss
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Template:Infobox Cricketer Andrew John Strauss (born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 2 March, 1977) is an English cricketer. Educated at Radley College and Durham University, he plays county cricket for Middlesex, and became captain in 2002 on the retirement of Angus Fraser.
Strauss made his One-day International debut for England in Dambulla, Sri Lanka on 18 November, 2003. He made his Test match debut against New Zealand at Lord's on 20 May, 2004, scoring a century in his first innings and being named man of the match. He also scored a century and was named man of the match in his first overseas Test match, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in December 2004.
As an opening batsman, Strauss has shown calmness, authority, and good judgement of which balls to hit and which to leave. His fancy footwork helped England waltz to victory in his first eight Test matches. This winning streak is still a record for England, but remains a long way off Australia's record 16 victories in a row, and Adam Gilchrist's opening winning streak in his first 15 matches.
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Centuries
Test debut
Strauss made 112 runs in the first innings on his Test match debut for England against New Zealand at Lord's in May 2004. He was run out by Nasser Hussain for 83 in England's second innings. Strauss was named man of the match.
He was the fifteenth English batsman to score a century on his Test debut and the fourth batsman to do so at Lord's (the others being Henry Graham of Australia in 1893, John Hampshire of England in 1969, and Sourav Ganguly of India in 1993). The last English cricketer to score a century on Test debut before Strauss was Graham Thorpe (114 not out) in the second innings of the third Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1993. The previous English cricketer to score a century in the first innings on Test debut was John Hampshire (107) in the second Test against West Indies at Lord's in 1969.
Strauss wasn't in England's original squad for the match, only being called into the squad when Michael Vaughan was injured during the preparations for the game. After England's initial plan for replacing Vaughan (promoting Mark Butcher to open and adding Paul Collingwood to the side) fell through when Butcher declined to change his position, the selectors turned to Strauss, expecting him to be merely a stopgap replacement for Vaughan. However, his success in the match caused a dilemma for the selectors that was only solved when Nasser Hussain chose to retire from cricket after the match.
July 2004
In July 2004, he made exactly 100 runs in his first One-day International innings at Lord's against the West Indies. This innings formed part of England's highest ever ODI partnership (226 for the 4th wicket) with Andrew Flintoff. Strauss became only the fifth player to have scored his first Test and ODI hundreds on the same ground.
Later in July 2004, also playing against the West Indies, Strauss became the third player to make centuries in both of his first two Lord's Tests (after Bill Brown in 1934 and 1938, and Dilip Vengsarkar in 1979, 1982 and 1986). Strauss scored 137 in England's first innings, sharing a stand of 291 with Robert Key (a record 3rd wicket Test partnership for England against the West Indies and a record 3rd wicket Test partnership for England at Lord's).
In South Africa, 2004–2005
In December 2004, playing against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, in his first overseas Test match, Strauss scored 126 in the first innings, and 94 not out in the second innings, and was again named man of the match. He was the seventh player to score a century in his first Tests at home and away (after Harry Graham, Ranjitsinhji, Lawrence Rowe, Kepler Wessels, Azhar Mahmood, and Michael Clarke earlier in 2004), and the first English player to score a Test century in the first innings of each of his first Tests at home and abroad (in the 1890s, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji scored a century in the second innings of his first home Test, and the first innings of his first overseas Test). Strauss also became the first player to score centuries in his first Test against the first three sides he played, but failed to extend this record in his first Test against Bangladesh at Lord's on 26 May–30 May 2005.
In the second innings of the second Test, at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban, Strauss scored 136, including a partnership of 273 for the first wicket with Marcus Trescothick, and he scored a further 147 runs in the first innings of the fourth Test at Johannesburg, thus achieving his fourth and fifth Test centuries in only his ninth and eleventh matches.
Also on this tour, Strauss reached 1,000 Test runs in only his tenth Test match. (The English record is nine matches, set by Herbert Sutcliffe). With 656 runs in 5 matches, at an average of 72.88, he was selected as England's man of the series.