Strauss backing for Broad :

      Captain insists bowler has been playing well

Broad: Has the backing of captain Andrew Strauss 

England captain Andrew Strauss insists he is confident Stuart Broad will rediscover his best form going into the final npower Test against Sri Lanka.

Broad is tentatively trying to re-establish himself back in the England side after being dogged by injuries during the winter.
However he heads to the Rose Bowl with his place in the side under threat after he took just 2-154 during the second Test.
And although the figures do not make pretty reading, Strauss believes Broad has been unlucky.
"We always want our bowlers to be taking a lot of wickets, so in that sense it is," Strauss said.
"But he has done a lot of good things - he has passed the bat a lot.
"The fact of the matter is we have a good squad of bowlers and they are all being pushed hard to keep improving.

Perfect

"You have to realise that sometimes one guy will get all the wickets when another guy bowls better, so you have to look a little bit beyond how many wickets a guy has taken and look at how many balls they got in the right area - and that sort of stuff."
England will be intent on making up for any shortcomings which emerged in the Lord's stalemate - principally a consensus that their bowling attack was off beam, in the absence of the now fit-again James Anderson.
"You're not going to play the perfect Test match every time. It's unrealistic to expect that," added the captain.
"In some ways, the fact that our bowling performance was a little bit down at Lord's is more of a reflection on how good it's been over the last 18 months.
"We've just come to expect bowlers to run in and put it on the spot consistently every time they bowl."
England (from): AJ Strauss (captain), AN Cook, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, EJG Morgan, MJ Prior (wkt), SCJ Broad, GP Swann, CT Tremlett, JM Anderson, ST Finn.
Sri Lanka (from): KC Sangakkara (captain), NT Paranavitana, HDRL Thirimanne, DPMD Jayawardene, TT Samaraweera, HAPW Jayawardene (wkt), NLTC Perera, CRD Fernando, HMRKB Herath, UWMBCA Welegedara, RAS Lakmal, BAW Mendis, HKS Randiv, MF Maharoof.