Strauss puts faith in his side's proven pedigree

It is easily forgotten that England's last Test against South Africa, in January 2010 at Johannesburg, was a catastrophe as they were thrashed by an innings and 74 runs.

But Andrew Strauss hasn't forgotten it. He admits now that he probably made the wrong decision at the toss, opting to bat and seeing his side bowled out for just 180, and that, unusually for his now ultra-professional side, there was some complacency in the rarefied air.

"We went into that game a little bit comfortable about being 1-0 up in the series," he says, "Maybe mentally we were on the plane home already. They caught us napping and never let us back into the game. It was a good reminder that against the good sides you very rarely get a second chance."

There will be no such laxness again. "Since that match we've come quite a long way," says Strauss. "We've all matured into our roles.

"Jimmy Anderson has very much become the leader of our attack and our batting has become less brittle. We're all a bit more comfortable about how to win cricket matches. In those days we didn't have the self-belief we have now."

And the truth is that England were knackered then, especially Strauss, who controversially missed the subsequent tour of Bangladesh. There is no such problem now, certainly not with Strauss, who played at Uxbridge last week for Middlesex, but before that had not played since the third Test against West Indies in early June.

We chatted last week at Middlesex's new training base at Radlett Cricket Club, but you sensed it was not just the gentle surroundings that made Strauss appear so relaxed, refreshed and ready ahead of the Investec series starting on Thursday. He has lost a couple of pounds in weight (not that he needed to), mainly because he could not lift weights for a few weeks after the West Indies series. The rest period was timely then.

"I had some tendinitis in my elbow," he says, "I would have had to have got it sorted because it was causing me a fair amount of discomfort. It came about because of a slight technical change, where I was using my top hand more."

It worked rather well then, with two centuries in five innings; some response to the "witch-hunt", as Graeme Swann put it, that had pursued him in Sri Lanka.

The ever-amiable Strauss laughs. "It was a relief to get those runs," he says. "It was frustrating for me that I had let it get to that stage.

"I kept getting 30s and 40s and not the hundred that would have stopped the talking. That's the way it was, and I had to find a way out of it. Thankfully I did."

It means that he can walk into the England dressing room at the Oval tomorrow morning wholly secure in his job, even though Alastair Cook has just skippered the one-day team to a 4-0 evisceration of Australia.

It also means that Graeme Smith, who coerced the resignations of Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan in 2003 and 2008, will not find another easy prey.

Does the split captaincy ever worry Strauss, though? "No," he says, "it may be at some stage that the team is ready to move on and that will be my cue, I guess. But I haven't felt it so far. Alastair and I work pretty well together.

"When it was first mooted there were question marks as to whether it would work properly. But so far it's allowed us both to do our jobs a bit better actually, and for equal priority to be given to one-dayers and Tests, which is quite hard to do when you're in the conveyor belt of going through series to series."

Of course, to widespread consternation, this is only a three-Test series. "Those big series you'd like to be longer series," says Strauss, "but you've got to understand that administrators are trying to fit a lot into a short space of time. When these decisions were made, we were trying to improve our one-day cricket and therefore needed to play more one-day games. It is what it is, and I don't think it is going to devalue the series. I still think it is going to be a fantastic series."

Bigger than the Ashes? "Not bigger than the Ashes in terms of public anticipation and expectation," he says, "but as a pure cricketing challenge, South Africa are as good as anyone in the world."

Except, of course, that their spinner Imran Tahir is considerably inferior to Swann. It is my understanding that England want, should the weather ever allow, to play on turning pitches. Strauss laughs again. "I just want a good wicket," he smiles, "one that allows opening batsmen to score a lot of runs!

"In my experience the South Africans have always dealt with English conditions as well as anyone else. There is the extra context of it being No?1 v No?2 in the world, but we're quietly confident that we've got the experience, nous and quality to beat them."

For one so successful Strauss cops an unfathomable amount of stick. He is too negative a tactician in the field apparently. He is not irked, but his response is forceful.

"The game has changed," he says. "Most players these days don't like being bogged down and, if they are for any length of time, they are likely to give a chance.

"The times it hasn't worked have been when people have been able to play the long game, like Rahul Dravid and Mike Hussey.

"Against those guys maybe you do need to go back to the old-school attack and have more guys in catching positions.

"But you can't afford to pander to what people want you to do. If you do that, you are drifting down a really dangerous track. Do it as you see it, and history will judge whether you have done a good job or not."

Have no fear, history will be kind. Only Vaughan, with 26 victories to Strauss's 24, has captained England to more Test victories.

The final Test at Lord's will be Strauss's 100th.

There could be more than one celebration.