• England in Sri Lanka 2012

Strauss not thinking about stepping down

Andrew Strauss' form has come under the spotlight © Getty Images

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Andrew Strauss insists he is not feeling any extra pressure ahead of England's second Test against Sri Lanka.

With England in danger of surrendering their No. 1 ranking, Strauss, who has not scored a Test century since November 2010, has come under criticism for his personal performances.

His poor form with the bat continued with scores of 26 and 27 during the defeat at Galle last week, but despite questions over his future as England captain, Strauss remains focused on the second Test in Colombo and is confident his side can return to winning ways after four straight defeats under his leadership.

When asked if he would consider stepping down after three years as skipper, Strauss replied: "That's not something I've considered. Going into this game it's really not something on my mind. People are always entitled to their opinions but I don't necessarily share them.

"Sometimes you'll go through patches where things don't work out your way, both individually and collectively. If you retain faith it will turn round, especially if you have players of real quality, which I know we do have.

"I'm very confident we've got the ability and skill to do that and that's going to be our challenge over the next five days. The pressure is no more than normal."

It is not the first time that Strauss' Test reputation has come under question, but the left-hander, who rescued his England career back in 2008 with a career-best 177 against New Zealand, believes he needs to keep things simple in order to rediscover his form.

"One of the advantages of experience is that you've always got something to fall back on and I'll be trying to do that this week," Strauss said.

"It's never rocket science. Watching the ball is always a good starting point and we all tend to over-complicate things too often, so it's a case of being as simple as possible, taking your time to get in and making sure you convert it into a big score."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.