Former England captain Andrew Strauss believes that the current side face a real battle to try to win the Ashes series outright despite retaining the urn on Monday.

Play was abandoned during the third Test in Manchester with Australia seemingly in control, leaving the match as a draw and England with a 2-0 lead in the series with two Tests left to play.

Having been tipped to secure a whitewash on home turf prior to The Ashes, Strauss now feels that England have the motivation necessary to win the final two matches.

"Australia had lost six Test matches in a row before this game so to come out and play as positively as they did was great," Strauss told Sky Sports News. "Michael Clarke led from the front and it is something of a reversal in fortune for them and they will be looking to use that as a buffer to go on and play better cricket in the next two games.

"England have learnt that Australia aren't as bad as people are making out to be. They probably realised that anyway but any kind of pretensions they might of had of a series whitewash can now be put to bed and know that they've still got a fight on their hands to win the series.

"England don't want this series to finish 2-2 having gone 2-0 up - they will want to come out at Durham and show that this was an aberration and they have plenty of motivation to do that now."

The fourth Test starts in Durham on Friday.