Strauss faces intense scrutiny

A career may be on the line this week. There is a chance, albeit still an outside one, that when Andrew Strauss goes out to the toss with Mahela Jayawardene at the P Sara Oval that it will be the last time he does it for his country. The odds favour him leading England against West Indies and South Africa later this year but he is sitting as uncomfortably as he has at any stage since taking the job.

Over the last three days, since England's defeat in the Galle Test, Strauss has been offered unwavering support from Graham Gooch, Steven Finn and Jonathan Trott: a former great, a youngster and a seasoned-pro with a chance of greatness. In their minds Strauss is going nowhere in the near future. Of course, they would say nothing else in public, but their words carry conviction.

There is more at stake for England over the next five days in one of Colombo's poorer suburbs than just world ranking points. Victory would retain them the No. 1 spot but even if that was the case few would really believe it to be a true reflection on the situation. Too much has changed since England beat India at Edgbaston last year for one win to put everything right again.

Runs for Strauss in either victory or defeat will reassert his right to captain England against West Indies at Lord's on May 17. Even the direst circumstances - in which England lose their fifth successive Test and Strauss score no runs -- are unlikely to force his sacking, although the scrutiny could become intolerable. Strauss has not lost his drive - far from it - but at some point it can become too much.

"It's easy when it's going well: everyone is buoyant and happy and patting each other on the back," Strauss said. "When times are tough, that's when it's important you stand up and lead and show people the right direction. I like that sort of challenge. It hasn't gone our way so far this winter but I retain absolute faith in our players and the way we like to play our cricket that it will turn round.

"You've got to stick with it. You've got to realise you're not going to win every game you play. Sometimes you'll go through patches where things don't work out your way, both individually and collectively and if you retain faith, it will turn round, especially if you have players of real quality, which I know we do have."

If we are looking at Strauss on the brink then it is for the second time in his career. Against New Zealand, in Napier, he was merely one of the foot soldiers in Michael Vaughan's team and only had his own problems to reflect upon.

He had struggled during his comeback series having missed the previous tour to Sri Lanka. He made a duck in the first innings and might have had one England knock left but went on to make 177 which remains his highest Test score. Had Strauss not made runs in Napier and been dropped (so many ifs and maybes) he could still have fought his way back through domestic cricket. This time, though, at the age of 35 there will be no coming back once his place is relinquished either by himself or the selectors.

"One of the advantages of experience is that you've always got something to fall back on and I'll be trying to do that this week," Strauss said. "It's never rocket science: watching the ball is always a good starting point and we all tend to over-complicate things too often, so it's a case of being as simple as possible, taking your time to get in and making sure you convert it into a big score."

This is not a short-term run drought for Strauss. He has two hundreds in the last two-and-a-half years of Test cricket and only in the two series against Australia - in 2009, where he was Man of the Series, and 2010-11 when he averaged 43 - has he made a telling contribution. Unless you are Mike Brearley, even as captain runs matter.

"I want to score some runs, there is no doubt about that, but I'm very confident and I think we have the materials to do well in this Test," he said. "We're very motivated to show that we can play a lot better than we have so far on this tour, and that's what we'll be doing over the next five days."

Strauss received some sympathy from his opposite number. "It's tough for me to give advice to Andrew, but I can feel for him," Jayawardene said. "He has the experience and I'm sure he can handle that." However, Jayawardene will not be taking any of that sentiment into the middle on Tuesday.

Yesterday, April 1, was the cut-off for deciding the No. 1 team and England knew the position was theirs once South Africa failed to whitewash New Zealand. Within a week it may change hands. That will disappoint Strauss more than his lack of runs. Eight months after scaling the heights, that is not the sort of legacy he wanted to preside over.