In his latest exclusive diary entry for CricInfo, the England captain assesses England's performance in their first three games of the NatWest Triangular Series against Pakistan and Australia.

Bristol and Lord's were two very good games with two disappointing results. We were outplayed at Edgbaston, but at Bristol we took on the World Champions with a very inexperienced side, and came within three balls of winning. Having said that, Australia showed all their experience and qualities in passing the England total.

At Lord's against Pakistan we should have won. We lacked the know-how and experience that Australia had just shown us on Sunday. On Tuesday we were losing at 26 for 3, and then Trescothick and Shah were quite outstanding.

Marcus has grown in stature in each international he's played. At Lord's he played one of the best one-day innings I've seen, and Owais Shah, in just his second game, showed maturity and composure. It needed just one other player to bat with Trescothick to see us to victory. We'd reduced the required rate from seven an over to just over four, and we couldn't do it from there – that's what was so disappointing.

Shah has mirrored the Trescothick scenario last year – he came in because of an injury to Nasser, and looked at home straight away. Shah's also come in because of injury and hasn't looked out of his depth – he's taken his opportunities. In his first game he came in at a difficult time, but his scoring rate was good and he was undefeated at the end. At Lord's he came in at 26 for 3, and did everything with Marcus bar winning the game. That bodes well for the future – he's impressed me and everyone else who's been watching.

England are a young, inexperienced team. At Lord's on Tuesday, without Wasim Akram, Pakistan had 770 more caps than we did. That gives you an idea of the difference between the two sides. The more we play, the more experienced we'll become, and the more likely we'll be to take the kind of chances we had on Sunday and Tuesday.

Pakistan had three direct-hit run outs. We had four run-out opportunities, and we didn't hit the stumps. All we can do is keep practicing, which we're doing. Run-outs are crucial in any situation, but especially the tight ones. Overall I've been happy with our fielding, but our strike rate for hitting the stumps needs to improve.

Before this tournament I said that if we're going to compete in the 2003 World Cup, we need as much one-day international cricket as possible. If we get to tour Zimbabwe in September, it'll give more experience to those selected.

Whatever happens in the rest of this series, we still want to compete. At the start we had six people out injured, and we're playing the two best one-day sides in the world. As for me, it would be nice to get a hundred before the end of the tournament – this time last year I was player of the series! But the main thing is that as a team we're moving in the right direction. We may have lost eight games on the trot, but in the last two we've learned a lot.

© CricInfo Ltd.