Andrew Strauss has "unfinished business" with the captaincy but called on England to give Kevin Pietersen their full backing.

Strauss led England for five Tests spanning 2006 and 2007 and was keen to have another crack at the role in the five-day version of the game when Michael Vaughan quit on Sunday, but England's decision to appoint a single skipper for Test and limited-overs cricket ended his hopes for the time being.

"You never know what is around the corner. In some ways I was disappointed I wasn't thought of as a possible Test captain," Strauss said.

"But once the selectors decided they wanted to unify the jobs, then I probably was a bit of a non-starter," he admitted.

"You never know, there may be opportunities in the future. You never say never and it is something I'd still like to do again.

"I think I've still got unfinished business with the captaincy to be honest. I feel I could have done the Test job and made a pretty good fist of it and would have benefited a lot from the time I had in charge previously.

"The most important thing from my point of view is there is no point in me feeling sorry for myself. The most important thing is that I get behind Kevin and help him out.

"The issue is the England team going forward and the senior players getting behind Kevin in what is going to be a bit of a learning curve for him and we need to support him as much as we can."