Andrew Strauss said: "Given I took over the captaincy at the last minute there was a lot to do off the field.

"But I’ve always felt the captaincy helps my batting. It simplifies the batting, because you are thinking about other things rather than where your front foot is going, where your head is going.

"Hopefully that can continue and I can get some more runs in the series."

He continued: "It was important we came out positive today just to show there is a lot of fight in us and we did that from ball one.

"On this pitch it is not that easy to get ones, it’s easier to get boundaries than get ones.

"And once me and Cooky (Alastair Cook) were in we decided that if the shot was on we should back ourselves and go for the shot."