Strauss to lead England in first Test against West Indies

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Som May 15 2007

With regular captain Michael Vaughan nursing a broken finger, Andrew Strauss was named the new skipper of the side which will take on the West Indies in the first Test.

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The young trio of Matthew Prior, Liam Plunkett and Owais Shah were also inducted in the side as new coach Peter Moores tried to strike a balance between youth and experience.

Moores indicated that he is not going to follow the route his predecessor Duncan Fletcher had charted. It became even more evident when he pencilled in Prior and Shah, who could not convince Fletcher about their potentials. Now with his Sussex guide Moores in charge of the national team, Prior is expected to give it his best.

Moores also differed from his treatment of Vaughan. Fletcher always banked on star players and would surely have kept Vaughan in his scheme of things even though Vaughan's finger injury is not likely to heal well in time.

England faced the dilemma in their Ashes campaign as well where Vaughan, despite being not in the team due to injury, always had a shadowy presence, which did not allow Andrew Flintoff to assert himself as the skipper.

Strauss was preferred to Flintoff this time because the selectors wanted to have a disciplined guy at the helm of affairs and not Flintoff, whose drinking binge has often landed him in trouble.

Photo: Daily Telegraph

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