Product Description

Testing Times is the 2009 Ashes-winning captain’s personal account of a remarkable and tumultuous two-year period in world cricket.

When Strauss went out for his second innings in the Napier Test of March 2008, everyone thought – including the man himself – he was one false stroke from the end of his England career. With extracts from his diary Strauss gives a unique insight into the torment which many Test cricketers go through. But, at the last ditch, he scored 177 and re-established himself as England’s first-choice opening batsman.

Taking the reader behind the scenes, Strauss describes his momentous experiences, such as Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy, the dramatic events of the Stanford Twenty20 series, the shocking terrorist attack in Mumbai, his feat of becoming the first England batsman to hit two centuries in a Test in Asia, his sudden appointment as England captain, and his team being dismissed for 51 in his first Test.

Both revealing and forthright, Testing Times captures all the excitement of the 2009 Ashes triumph in which his magnificent batting and calm leadership played such a role: the agonising last day at Cardiff, England’s first Ashes victory at Lord’s for 75 years, the horrors of Headingley which began with a 5 a.m. fire alarm, and finally the joy at the Oval of regaining the Ashes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7605 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-17
• Released on: 2009-09-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Andrew Strauss was born in 1977 and spent his early years in South Africa, Australia and England. Strauss wrote his name into the record books when he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord's on his Test debut, in 2004. In 2009 Strauss was named England captain and was subsequently named Man of the Series in the Ashes victory. Andrew Strauss is married with two children.

Customer Reviews

Andrew's Ashes
I'm somewhat surprised that on-one has reviewed this book as there were a shedload of people queuing up for Andrew to sign copies when I bought mine in early October. Anyway, reading Andrew Strauss's second book immediately after tackling `Coming back to me' by Marcus Trescothick was probably slightly unfair as the Trescothick book has won awards and is more than just a cricket book.

The book charts Andrew's cricket career from the period just after he regained his form in the final knock against New Zealand following his omission from the Test Squad to Sri Lanka. It's an honest and modest summary of both his and the team's achievements culminating in the fantastic Ashes victory in the summer of 2009. It's interesting to read an inside view of how the team responded to the humiliating defeat in the 4th Test at Headingley and then bounced back in the Oval with Stuart Broad's match winning spell of bowling. Andrew showers much praise on Freddie Flintoff emphasising that his contribution to the team is much more than statistics reflect. Otherwise, there is little insight into other characters in the England team and (as you would expect), no outright criticism of them such as we have seen from ex-players who have released their autobiographies after retiring from the game or international duty.

The one aspect regarding the Ashes win which does not receive comment from Andrew is the fact that the series was unavailable on free view television; something which for me made the series less absorbing than the 2005 series had been. How the players feel about their lesser exposure is not explored and it would be interesting to have learnt some inside views on this controversial topic.

So, in summary this is an interesting if not particularly absorbing read and I might be tempted to read an alternative book on the Ashes series written by someone who has more freedom of speech.