Under-fire Strauss shrugs off captaincy talk

England's Andrew Strauss insisted on Monday that he would fight on as captain and battle through his batting slump as the team look for a series-leveling win in the final Test against Sri Lanka.

Strauss's world number one side face a must-win situation at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Tuesday after losing the opening game of the two-match series in Galle by 75 runs.

It was England's fourth consecutive defeat in Asia this year following the 3-0 rout by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. They must win in Colombo to avoid falling to second spot in the world rankings behind South Africa.

"We desperately want to win this Test match and make amends for what happened in Galle," said Strauss, who is himself struggling to score runs at the top of a fragile batting order.

"I am very sure we have the ability to do it, and that is what we will challenge ourselves to do in the next five days.

"We have not been as consistent as we would like to be, and now we have this final chance and salvage something out of the winter and go into the summer with some momentum.

"I retain absolute faith in our players. You are not going to win every game you play. But if you retain faith, you will turn it around, especially when you have players of quality in your side, which I know we have."

Strauss has gone 23 innings without adding to his 19 Test centuries, and managed just one three-figure knock in his past 48 innings.