Strauss: England Will Bounce Back

England captain Andrew Strauss has backed his side to “bounce back” in the Second Test starting at Headingley on Thursday following their emphatic opening loss to South Africa.

The Proteas won the First Test at The Oval, London, by an innings and 12 runs to take the lead in the series which is likely to decide who is the number one ranked Test nation in the world.

However, Strauss was confident his side could respond after their emphatic defeat in London.

“There’s clearly a steely determination amongst the troops to show that we are better than we showed last week,” Strauss said.

“In the past, when we have lost a game we have always bounced back well and I’m very confident we’ll come out here and play a lot of good cricket this week.

“Being number one isn’t something we focus on a day-to-day basis but we want to win this series. If we lose it, we lose that ranking as well, which will hurt.

“It’s going to take a little bit of character and guts but I know we’ve got a bit of that in the squad.”

Meanwhile, South Africa skipper Graeme Smith had confidence his side could build on the First Test but wasn’t getting carried away.

“This is the best group of men I’ve been around and we have most our bases covered,” he said.

“We would love to carry on in the way we played at the Oval but generally we haven’t got caught up in the outside stuff.