Andrew Strauss admits both he and team must do better with bat

ANDREW Strauss acknowledges that England's batting must improve and promises it will in the fourth npower Test against Pakistan at Lord's.

Collapses from both teams have become a recurring theme of a series played under unshifting cloud cover. And, even when the skies brightened to help provide easier batting conditions at The Oval, England were evidently so thoroughly programmed to self-destruct that they suffered their worst lapse yet.

The upshot was an unexpected victory for Pakistan, meaning the tourists have a chance to square the four-match series 2-2.

Strauss' own batting is beginning to come under the microscope, although his productivity has been acceptable since his last hundred against Australia on this ground 13 months ago.

There have been seven 50s in that time, and Strauss' liking for his home turf at Lord's has brought him four Test tons there.

It is England's collective rather than his own personal runs output which will be the priority when play begins this morning between two teams who are likely to be unchanged. Strauss is not shying away from some stark evidence. The Middlesex opener said: "We've won two games of cricket comfortably and lost one. But let's not run away from the fact that we need to bat better than we have done in this series.

"We need to improve as a batting unit and individual batters need to improve as well."

Defeat at The Oval last week was a shock for some observers, who had arrived at a premature conclusion that England would continue to overwhelm the tourists and chalk up a record winning run before the start of the Ashes in November.

Strauss, as ever, sought to put the setback into context.

"It wasn't the worst since I became captain, because we've had some poor performances," he added. "But we lost a game. That was disappointing, because we should have been better than that.

"There are lessons to learn from The Oval. There is a steely determination about the group to prove that was a one-off.

"We haven't batted brilliantly," he added. "But if you're scoring 200 and bowling the opposition out for 80 then your batsmen have done a good job.

"We've talked about it, and there are a couple of areas we want to improve and errors we made that we won't make here.

"The key is that when you lose a wicket the next guy comes in and establishes himself at the crease and doesn't allow the opposition to build momentum."

As for his own mediocre sequence of scores, he added: "I'd like to think I can do something about it. I would like to have scored more runs than I have done this series, clearly.

"But it has been tough for the opening batsmen, and the ball has been swinging around.

"I would like to get a score both as a batsman and as a captain to lead by example."

There is a perception that Strauss is susceptible to left-arm seamers - two of whom, Mohammad Aamer and Wahab Riaz, inhabit Pakistan's frontline attack. But he believes he can cope, especially at a venue where he feels so much at home and has scored so many runs.

"Any bowler that is swinging it away, as Jimmy Anderson showed, is going to be quite potent," said Strauss. "Aamer, in particular, has bowled well with the new ball. But I back myself to play him well more times than not.

"I'm pretty happy with the way my batting's been going and I've made useful contributions. But I've not got to three figures and I'd like that to change this week. Lord's is a wicket I generally play well on, and I'm confident going into this game."

Unsurprisingly, Strauss is happy to profess the contrasting opinion that Pakistan - even with Mohammad Yousuf back - are more likely to revisit their collapses.

"Yousuf is a quality player. But we still think there are deep vulnerabilities in their batting line-up, and they've proved that so far this summer," he said.