Strauss shows that simple approach can be best

Strauss was not born to hit the ball straight, he was made for the less exalted, but no less profitable areas. But one of Strauss's many enviable qualities, perhaps the most enviable, is his phlegmatic state. During the good days which formed most of his first two years as a Test cricketer he often alluded to the truth that it would not always be this good. It was as if he was preparing himself for the hard times and preparing the selectors for them as well.

On 26 November Cook was on the England bus, asleep, when mobile phones started ringing with the first reports of the atrocities in Mumbai. Pretty soon he was awake, caught up in the maelstrom of horror, uncertainty and fevered speculation that would propel the team home with what some have suggested was undue haste. "Yeah, the decision was made pretty quickly," Cook says. "But it was the right decision, in my opinion. It gave everyone a chance to take stock. On tour you're in a kind of bubble. Being home meant you could give it some clearer thought."