England Test captain Andrew Strauss warmed up for next week's first Test against India by scoring a quick-fire 78 for Somerset against the tourists at Taunton on Friday. Strauss has made a brief loan move to Somerset from Middlesex in the hope of rediscovering his form after a miserable run during England's recent Test series win over Sri Lanka. The switch paid dividends as Strauss shared a 101-run partnership with Arul Suppiah before the opener was dismissed by Amit Mishra shortly before lunch on the opening day of the three-day match.
Strauss scored just 27 runs in three Tests against Sri Lanka and, with Middlesex's fixtures offering little chance for first-class action, he decided to take the risk of giving India's bowlers a chance to dent his morale ahead of the start of the first Test at Lord's.
He struck 11 boundaries and brought up his half century from just 63 balls, although he did survive an lbw appeal from Indian seamer Zaheer Khan when he had scored only 20. India's bowlers found it hard going on a rain-interrupted day at Taunton and Somerset had advanced to 210-1 after 53 overs, with Suppiah unbeaten on 72. Zaheer is the only one of the India attack taking on Somerset who is certain to play at Lord's, with Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar rested following their workload in the recent Test series against the West Indies.
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