Strauss and the art of leadership

Kevin Pietersen, he concedes, “likes the attention”. The brilliant batting automaton that is Alastair Cook “epitomises what this team is about”. One so serenely composed should need little prompting to locate the words that best capture his style. He is simply the consummate captain.

England’s first Ashes triumph in Australia for 24 years represented the vindication of many virtues: faultless planning, destructive seam bowling, preternatural powers of concentration.

But the spirit was nowhere better embodied than by Strauss. Unruffled at the top of the order, immaculate in the slip cordon, and masterful in imparting motivation to his men as they toiled in 100-degree heat, he was the talisman from which that 3-1 scoreline sprang. No wonder he has just written a book about it.