England's poor away form in Tests ‘a long-standing problem’ — Andrew Strauss

Andrew Strauss has admitted that England have not been ‘good enough’ in away Tests and they need to be more ‘flexible and creative’ in the way they play and make selections in order to attain ‘sustained success’.

Strauss, who has taken an indefinite break from his role as England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Director of Cricket to spend time with his ailing wife, recently reviewed England's form in away Tests from the past couple of years.

Since the start of October 2016, England have played 14 Tests overseas — against Bangladesh, India, Australia and New Zealand, out of which they have lost 10, drawn three and won only one, in Bangladesh.

“We need to be better away from home,” Strauss was quoted as saying by espn.in. “Over the last two or three years, the performance of our Test team away from home hasn't been good enough.

“Actually, it's been a long-standing problem. Our performances over the last 40 years or so away from home have been below world average. If you look at English cricketers since the turn of the century, less than a handful have better records away from home than at home.

“So if everyone in our team is significantly worse away from home, the likelihood is the team as a whole will be significantly worse.”

Strauss suggested that the team look at how they played in 2004 and 2011. “The only two times we have peaked above world average is when we got to No.1 in the world in 2011 and when we got to No.2 in the world in 2004 under Michael Vaughan. So we need to focus on this long-standing approach and we need a game-wide approach,” he said.

Strauss also felt that the appointment of the six scouts: Marcus Trescothick, James Taylor, Chris Read, Steve Rhodes, Richard Dawson and Glen Chapple — all former international players, as well as ECB's relationship with the counties and the change in the domestic structure will help in taking stock of the situation better and bringing in new talents to England's national side.

“If we genuinely want to make a step forward with regard to winning away from home, we have to be prepared to approach things very differently,” Strauss said. “We should be far more flexible about the way we play our cricket away from home. We can't just presume that what works at home will work away. We need to be more flexible and creative both in the way we play and the way we select.

“And we have to have more skilful players who are able to encounter the conditions away from home. When you delve beneath the surface, the areas we are most deficient at this stage is on flat wickets that don't swing or seam. And that's both with bat and ball.”