Strauss steps down from Twenty20 side

England captain Andrew Strauss voluntarily stepped aside as skipper for the Twenty20 World Cup because his form in the shortest form of the game did not guarantee him a place in the side, he said on Tuesday.

Strauss was omitted on Monday from a provisional 30-man squad for the tournament to be staged in England from June 5-21. The squad will be trimmed to 15 on May 1.

Asked by reporters if it had been his decision to stand down, Strauss said: "Yes it was.

"Certainly they (the selectors) asked my opinion on it and I felt quite strongly it's not my strongest form of the game by any means.

"I think whoever captains any team should be worth their place in the side," added Strauss, who was taking part in the England and Wales Cricket Board's official launch of the 2009 season.

"I had problems, I didn't feel that I was necessarily in the strongest XI of Twenty20 players in the country so if that was the case it was wrong for me to captain the side."

Strauss, 32, said the challenge of planning and preparing for the Ashes series against Australia starting in Cardiff on July 8 had not played a part in his decision.

"To be honest that didn't come into it at all, I don't feel jaded in any way. I feel quite comfortable with my game at the moment," he said.

"The process was as much as anything who are the best 11 players to represent England in Twenty20 cricket and I didn't believe I was one of those."

Strauss, who took over as captain this year after Kevin Pietersen's unexpected resignation, was England's leading batsman in the losing test series in the West Indies and also batted well in the one-day series which his team won.

"I feel very strongly that I can keep doing a good job in 50 overs cricket," he said. "But in Twenty20 cricket you need to be scoring 170s and 180s and in order to do that you need the power players which is not necessarily a strength of mine."