Strauss: England are united

Andrew Strauss has insisted England will be taking a unified squad to the West Indies - with Kevin Pietersen intent on leading from the front.

England depart for the Caribbean on Wednesday morning while still adjusting to the recent power struggle that ended Pietersen's brief reign as captain and sealed the demise of coach Peter Moores.

"Kevin was his normal self when we met up recently. You don't expect him to behave any other way," Strauss said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board's failure to back Pietersen's attempts to have Moores ousted will have left his ego bruised, and how he reacts to the demotion remains to be seen.

But Strauss, his successor as England skipper, is backing the side's best batsman to put the episode behind him by putting the West Indies' bowlers to the sword.

Strauss continued: "I wasn't expecting any adverse reaction from Kevin but I could understand he had been through a tough time.

"When you have been under pressure like that it's easy to react in a number of different ways.

"Where I was pleasantly surprised was that he reacted in the way we all wanted him to. He is fully committed to playing for England and keen to go and score lots and lots of runs for England in the future.

"He's a very positive person and doesn't dwell on what happened in the past.

"He's done that successfully in the past and I'm sure he'll do it again."