In the first entry in his exclusive summer diary for CricInfo, Alec Stewart gives his thoughts on taking over the England captaincy for the remainder of the Test series against Pakistan. He reflects on England's innings victory in the First Test at Lord's, in which he reached another milestone of his own, unnoticed by his teammates.

I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to captain England on a temporary basis in the Second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford. It's a great honour to lead your country, and I much look forward to the game. I had no problem with adding the captaincy to my batting and wicket-keeping duties when I was England skipper for the first time. I did all three jobs during the 1998 Test series against South Africa, which England won. And when you're put in charge of a good side that's been winning, it obviously makes captaincy that much easier.

To win the First Test in three days, having made one of the better sides in world cricket follow on, was an outstanding performance. Andy Caddick and Darren Gough played a huge part, with 16 wickets between them, but the fact that we scored nearly 400, with Thorpey getting 80 and the rest of us chipping in at a good rate – nearly three an over – gave us plenty of time to bowl them out. I was told before the start of the game that if Nasser went off the field they wanted me to be captain, and I had no problem with that – but I didn't expect Nasser to be off the field for so long. To break his thumb when he was just coming into form was obviously a huge blow for him and to the team.

I felt I batted very well. I middled the ball straight away, which was excellent because we wanted to post a big total. Unfortunately I was done by a very clever piece of bowling from Shoaib Akhtar – to go from 90mph to 60 mph was a pretty good effort, and I didn't pick it. I've always enjoyed playing at Lord's – it's my favourite ground, with a wonderful atmosphere, and I've enjoyed some success there over the years.

Goughie's 200th Test wicket was also my 200th Test catch – he likes all the limelight and the headlines, so I'll let him get on with it. No one out there congratulated me on the catch. I keep very quiet - I don't go round writing targets and things and show them to everyone – I just carry on catching them, or trying to. We enjoyed his 200th wicket because we all knew how close he was. I was aware it was my 200th catch, but I didn't make the fuss that he did. My best catch was the one which got rid of Inzamam down the leg side, and the one off Caddy's no ball was a good catch too. It was nice to take the match-winner too – it came through pretty quick, but you should normally hold on to chances like that.

Pakistan are a talented side, but it's been a hard start to this tour for them. They've had a game against the Universities, and a washed-out game against Kent, plus a rain-affected game against Derbyshire. They were under-prepared, and quite a few of their squad haven't played in England before, so the conditions and weather are all slightly new to them. But having said that, when we go to Pakistan it's quite new to us. And to be honest, I never have much sympathy for the opposition – I'll leave that to the neutrals!

Looking ahead to the Ashes series, we're a confident side now – we've just won four series on the trot, but we're also very realistic. The Australians are a level above everyone else when it comes to cricket – we need to perform as we've done for the last 12-16 months, and if we do that we can compete with Australia. They're the firm favourites and that's how it should be – we've got to be at the top of our game just to compete with them. We're not getting giddy – obviously the public expectation is growing the more games that we win, and the better days that we have. That's understandable, but as players we've got to be realistic.

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