Miller stands by skipper Strauss

National selector Geoff Miller has backed Andrew Strauss to bounce back to form and continue to lead England in the five-day game.

The Middlesex man is currently in the middle of one of his worst runs as an England batsmen and has not scored a Test century since the Brisbane Test of the 2010-11 Ashes tour Down Under. He has shown glimpses of his undoubted talent but manages to find a way of getting out when apparently set for a big score. It has been a frustrating period for the 35-year-old, who has watched as his opening partner, Alastair Cook, has plundered runs all around the world, while the rest of the top six have also scored heavily at times. There was a collective failure over the winter, as England lost 3-0 to Pakistan and drew 1-1 in Sri Lanka, and there were calls for Strauss to step down due to the results and his own lack of runs. But he will lead England into battle with the West Indies this week at Lord's and Miller has no doubts he is the man to continue in the top job for the foreseeable future. "Of course, we do stand by Andrew Strauss," he said. "He's the England captain, a successful England captain over the last two or three years or so. "He's probably not scored the amount of runs he would have liked. But I'm sure they're just round the corner. He's a quality player." Strauss scored an unbeaten 43 for Middlesex on Saturday and Miller is convinced that he will show his true colours against the Windies. He added: "He's just started to get runs - 40 odd not out on Saturday - I'm sure that will be the turnaround in his fortunes."