LONDON - England captain Andrew Strauss, who oversaw back-to-back Ashes wins over Australia and took the team to the top of the test rankings, announced his retirement from professional cricket on Wednesday.Strauss, appointed in 2009, will be replaced by one-day skipper Alastair Cook."It’s a very tough decision to make. For me, the drive to it all was my form with the bat and in truth I haven’t batted well for a long period of time now,” the 35-year-old opener told a news conference at Lord’s."For a captain to perform his role properly, it’s important that you’re not a passenger in the side but also that people aren’t speculating whether you should be in the side or not.His decision was the climax of a difficult few weeks during which England batsman Kevin Pietersen was dropped for the third and final test against South Africa after sending what the player conceded were ‘provocative’ text messages about his team mates and management to opposition players.