Pressure on Strauss and England in Colombo

Jonathan Trott is backing under-fire England captain Andrew Strauss to end his form slump in the second test against Sri Lanka that starts on Tuesday.

The left-handed opening batsman has not scored a test century since 2010 and needs to spark his team into action after they lost the first game of the two-match series by 75 runs in Galle last week.

A fifth defeat in a row for England, who were also whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan in their previous series, in Colombo will allow South Africa to take over from them as the world's number one ranked team.

"Every player goes through ups and downs," Trott told reporters. "When someone is not scoring as many runs as they would like, or expect of themselves, it is always highlighted by you guys.

"I'm sure it will have a similar effect as it did when Alastair Cook recently came through his little slump. I'm surprised you guys haven't learned your lesson from that," added Trott who scored a century in Galle.

Strauss has plenty of credit in his 'cricket bank' having guided England to back-to-back Ashes wins over Australia and led them to the top of the test rankings.

However, he needs to arrest his batting slump quickly or run the risk of more media criticism about his value to the side.

Strauss's opening partner Cook was in a similar position midway through 2010 but a century against Pakistan at the Oval turned his form around and he has since gone from strength to strength, scoring six hundreds including two double tons.