We’ve learned lessons from 2007 World Cup: Strauss

DHAKA - England captain Andrew Strauss Monday said his team has learnt from their dismal performance in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Four years’s back Michael Vaughan’s team failed to beat any of the world’s top eight sides, barring the West Indies in a dead rubber.

Strauss said this time his team is ready to bag their maiden 50-over World Cup and add to the World Twenty20 title they won under Paul Collingwood last year.

They will be playing two warm-up games here with Canada and Pakistan later this week.

Strauss admitted that the 1-6 ODI series loss in Australia will not have any bearing on England’s World Cup campaign.

“We played badly in the recently concluded ODI series. But we’ve got a solid squad, a very settled side and we are confident of doing well in this tournament. We’re excited about it and I think the guys took a lot of confidence from the fact they won the World Twenty20 - they know they can do it on the big stage,” said Strauss.

Reflecting on the 2007 campaign, Strauss said: “The whole campaign in the 2007 World Cup was a poor one. We failed to get a good start and never got going and played a very conservative brand of cricket. I hope we’ve learned lessons from it - as we did from the 2006/07 Ashes series - and won’t repeat the mistakes.”

The England team is also battling with injuries to key players. They are missing key middle order batsman Eoin Morgan with a broken finger, pace duo Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad are nursing knocks, while fit-again Stuart Broad has not played since the second Ashes Test.

“We’re monitoring it on a day-by-day basis,” said Strauss.