Strauss wants England to keep on improving

ANDREW Strauss admits England still have room for improvement as they eye a series victory against Pakistan before setting off for Australia.

Strauss sees a potentially difficult four-match series against Salman Butt's tourists as an opportunity to continue a progression which began with last summer's wins over West Indies and then in the Ashes.

Anything but another success over a developing team who have just drawn 1-1 against Australia themselves would be a dent to England's hopes of retaining the urn Down Under for the first time in almost a quarter-of-a-century. England's most recent Test assignment was a routine 2-0 win at home to Bangladesh, since when they have been involved in one-day international series before a mid-summer recess.

"We're not necessarily where we want to be, but I think we're making improvements," said Strauss ahead of today's Trent Bridge opener. "My first series in charge we lost to the West Indies, then beat the West Indies and won the Ashes.

"I think there's a nice progression there - but there are areas we need to improve."

England yesterday had to call up Tim Bresnan for his fellow Yorkshire all-rounder Ajmal Shahzad, after the latter aggravated an ankle injury. But Strauss could breathe a sigh of relief after key batsman Kevin Pietersen emerged unscathed when he fell over a football in warm-up yesterday morning.

England know their opponents' mercurial streak is likely to produce exciting cricket throughout, and Strauss can only hope that does not boil over into anything like the controversy he had to deal with in his first series as captain - in 2006 when Pakistan had to forfeit the Oval Test after being accused of ball-tampering.