Strauss confident of World Cup revival

LONDON: England captain Andrew Strauss has predicted an upturn in his side's one-day fortunes at the World Cup when he expects to finally have his first-choice attack at his disposal.

Strauss returned to London on Tuesday after England's 6-1 defeat in the recent one-day series in Australia still insisting his team could match anyone in the world when their frontline bowlers were available.

Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad and Ajmal Shahzad, all members of the World Cup squad, plus Chris Tremlett, who is a reserve, were missing for all or part of the beating in Australia.

But Strauss expects them to be firing and giving England a much-needed lift ahead of their first World Cup fixture, against the Netherlands in Nagpur on February 22.

"Our bowling attack has been the basis of a lot of our one-day victories over the last 12 or 18 months, Strauss told reporters at Heathrow Airport here on Tuesday. "We have had a settled bowling unit who really know their roles really well and have bowled very well in tandem together.

"There is no doubt we missed that in Australia and I believe our bowling attack is a match for anyone in the world.

"They should be fit but they need to find some rhythm pretty quickly and the batsmen need to do their job," the left-handed opener added.

"The atmosphere at the World Cup is going to be very intoxicating and very motivating. All the best players in the world will be there and ultimately only one team is going to walk away with that World Cup.