Andrew Strauss plays a straight bat on Channel Four's controversial Sri Lanka documentary Strauss has not seen Channel Four's latest documentary though a copy of the programme was handed to Andy Flower before the team left Heathrow for Sri Lanka last Saturday. In the past, players, with Flower one of the most prominent among them, have been swayed by their own consciences on moral issues, with England's refusal to play in Zimbabwe during the 2003 World Cup being but one. Yet, Strauss, swapping his diplomat's hat for his cricket cap, is wary of making decisions which are only partially informed. "It's a bit of delicate balance," admitted Strauss. If you are investigating anything, you need to investigate it very thoroughly because otherwise there's nothing worse than a little bit of knowledge. There are people paid to look into these things. It is important they do their job and it's even more important that I do my job which is to try to help us win cricket matches. If he makes it sound simplistic, the reality has become a great deal trickier than it looked at the end of last summer when England despatched all opponents with ruthless efficiency to become the world's No 1 Test team. Since then, Strauss has overseen a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the UAE, a drubbing that now stands as a stark nadir especially when placed next to England's clean sweep in the one-day series under Alastair Cook which followed. But rather than feeling undermined by Cook's success Strauss plans to use it to galvanise his team. "I don't understand that mind-set at all," said Strauss. All I want is for the England team to do well. The reason we have separate captains is to allow us to each concentrate on one form of the game and really add some energy and motivation to that form. So far it's worked really well and I'm delighted for Cooky as he's had a tough introduction to the one-day captaincy. I need and want to take the momentum he's gained to help us move forward in the Test team. We're all in this together. There are no egos at play here and I don't think people are out to undermine each other. We're all focused on the same thing which is for England to win as many games as possible. To that end Strauss could do with making some runs in the two-match series. His last Test hundred was 22 innings ago while he has passed fifty just twice in his last 16 innings. The sluggish pitches and subsequent pitched-up bowling here won't really suit a back foot player like him, but he was one of the advance party who came out six days ahead of the main squad in order to address their issues against spin bowling with some intensive practice. "Because it was a small group we were able to be very specific and focused on getting a lot done in terms of cricket skills and also physical preparation," said Strauss. In some ways we feel a little bit ahead of where we would be at this stage of a tour. The challenge, as always, is to put the preparation into practice on the pitch. He will be hoping the three-day game also throws up solutions to who replaces Eoin Morgan, the sole casualty of the Test defeat by Pakistan. Ravi Bopara ought to be favourite should England persist with four frontline bowlers, though in a climate one former England captain described as "nearly too hot for Europeans to play cricket in," further bowling support may be required, which would bring Tim Bresnan and Samit Patel into contention.