Strauss made for the big stage

Strauss has yet to experience a defeat or even a draw in the Test side. Winning is all he knows.

Crucially, England's lucky charm has developed the important knack of scoring runs when they matter - his three Test hundreds have all come in the first match of the series (against New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa) when the teams are laying down their markers and the shape of the series has not yet been set.

Strauss's average (a very healthy

57.86) will inevitably drop when he stumbles into the unavoidable poor patch. That he is so grounded and relaxed will only help him.

"I feel pretty comfortable with who I am and what my priorities are and cricket is important," said the Durham University graduate in a recent interview.

"But whether I get nought or a hundred, it's not going to make a massive difference to my life."

Strauss knows what to do to realise his immense potential.

"I'm pretty ambitious and I'm

pretty competitive and although I'm quite laid-back I've got a high drive to do well," he said.

"I certainly wasn't sitting there at Middlesex [his county side] saying, 'These are happy days, I just want to do this for the rest of my career'. I had a big ambition to play for England and I knew what I had to do to achieve it. A lot of hard work." Strauss turned down a career in the City when he graduated in 1998 and every England fan will breathe a sigh of relief that he swapped pinstripes for cricket whites.

Only seven months after making his Test debut, Strauss already looks England's most complete batsman. Captain Michael Vaughan is the easiest on the eye, Andrew Flintoff undoubtedly the most entertaining, and, if you had to pick a player in the side to bat for your life, few would look beyond Graham Thorpe.

But Strauss has all the attributes to become the most dependable run scorer in an England team that have not looked so strong in the batting department since the days of Barrington, May, Cowdrey and Boycott.

The Middlesex left-hander does not have an obvious weakness save for a tendency to hook in the air (as John Buchanan, Australia's forensic coach, will surely have already noted) yet he played the pull shot brilliantly, if aerially, in the First Test against South Africa.

Strong in defence and technically correct, Strauss is able to score fluently without resorting to risky shots but perhaps his biggest strength is his ability to stay calm under pressure.

This was evident in England's successful run chase on the wearing Port Elizabeth wicket as he overcame the early dismissals of Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher and Vaughan to steer his team to an historic victory.

And he is no slouch, either. In the first innings, Strauss outscored his senior opening partner Trescothick and in the second dig, scored almost twice as many runs as his team-mates put together (94 to 48).

South Africa might not be the force they were when Allan Donald was in his prime, but they still possess a couple of blue-chip new-ball bowlers in Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, while Dale Steyn displayed considerable promise - and pace - on his Test debut.

This winter and next summer Strauss will continue to develop into a cricketer of whom England have rarely seen the like.

But however stratospheric his career path, he'll remain the grounded type, as happy wielding a paint brush at the Old Vic as a bat at The Oval.