TESTING TIMES is the 2009 Ashes-winning captain's personal account of a remarkable 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. Taking the reader behind the scenes Strauss describes his momentous experiences such as Kevin Pietersen's captaincy the dramatic events of the Stanford Twenty 20 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 & his team being dismissed for 51 in his first Test. Both revealing & forthright TESTING TIMES captures all the excitement of the 2009 Ashes triumph in which his magnificent batting & 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 & finally the joy at the Oval of regaining the Ashes.