Strauss backs struggling top six

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The Middlesex left-hander scored a determined 106 to guide England to a six-wicket victory over New Zealand and secure his second century in the last four innings.

His renaissance comes after being dropped for the tour to Sri Lanka over Christmas and Strauss believes that has made him stronger saying: "It's hard work when you're not scoring as many runs as you want to. I didn't realise how hard it was until I went through it."

He added: "From my point of view I'm very lucky to have got the chance to come back and show I wasn't a spent force and had an opportunity in the side when some people thought that I shouldn't be in there.

"It's very much the case with the guys that are struggling a bit at the moment, but they'll come through it, there's no doubt about that.

"You only have to look at the records of the guys in the top six to see we've got a very strong batting line-up."

With Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell struggling for runs at present and captain Michael Vaughan having endured a difficult winter series in New Zealand, England have not posted a first-innings total in excess of 400 for the last 11 Tests.

It is a regular failing which has undermined England's attempts to play more consistent cricket and Strauss conceded: "It doesn't always fire when you want it to and it's frustrating when it doesn't, but success breeds success.

"When we start winning games in a row and building up momentum that will help the guys to score runs and by scoring runs it will help us win more games.

"If a few of the guys are in good form, that's going to rub off on the other guys."