Strauss: England can be world beaters

Andrew Strauss heads to India unconcerned that England's ICC Champions Trophy hopes are being written off.

Woeful form saw England win just four times in 21 completed contests prior to an upturn which resulted in a 2-2 draw, from 2-0 down, in the recent one-day series against Pakistan. That quartet of victories included one against Ireland and two in dead rubbers against Pakistan and India.

However, with major players such as Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and James Anderson returning to fitness there is reason for optimism and Strauss said: "We've always said that on our day we can beat any side in the world. We've got match-winning players and with a bit of confidence in our ranks as well there's no reason why we can't do well."

He added: "We're going to have to play at our best and that's something we haven't done well enough over the last 12 months - now is the time for us to really start doing that.

"The World Cup is not far away, we've got the Champions Trophy and an important limited-overs series in Australia to really hit our straps beforehand."

Flintoff returns to captain a team buoyed by back-to-back successes over Pakistan.

The performances were far superior to those earlier in the summer against Sri Lanka, who inflicted a merciless whitewashing.

Strauss' men halted a trot of four straight limited-overs series defeats with a tenacious attitude in the NatWest Series finale.

"I hope these couple of wins here have given us a little bit more confidence going into that tournament and if we continue doing that there's no reason why we can't do pretty well in that," said Strauss.

"The Rose Bowl was probably a bit of a turnaround, we competed for the first time in a while. We showed a lot of stomach for the fight, there was an intensity about our fielding and a lot more belief there and maybe that just started to seep back a bit of confidence for the last couple of games."