Arthur wary of Flintoff recall

South Africa's coach, Mickey Arthur, believes that his side could well find themselves facing Andrew Flintoff when they take on England in the first Test at Lord's a week on Thursday, even though he concedes that it would require a gamble from the selectors to pick him.

Arthur was speaking at Taunton where South Africa's first warm-up game drifted to a draw on the final afternoon. Had the South African dressing-room contained a television, they would have been able to watch a fired-up Flintoff taking on Sussex for Lancashire at Hove, where he bowled with great pace and hostility, and was only denied the wicket of Chris Adams when the third umpire decided that an edge to slip had not carried.

His bowling form presents England with a dilemma, because for all that the trio of Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad and James Anderson have impressed in recent months against New Zealand, none of them provides the attack with the same 90mph cutting edge of a fully-fit Flintoff. With South Africa set to field two out-and-out pace bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, plus the enduring hostility of Makhaya Ntini, the temptation to fight fire with fire is all the greater.

England's selectors met today, and are set to unveil their squad on Thursday, along with a 30-man preliminary party for the Champions Trophy in September, and Arthur was more than willing to stir the pot ahead of the series. "If I had a Flintoff I'd have him back," he said. "I think Andrew gives their attack a different flavour. He's got that bustling pace so it would be tempting to play him if he's fighting fit.

"It might be a gamble, but Peter [Moores] knows what he's doing," said Arthur. "He'll assess the risk, because if you've got a quality player like him available, you certainly want to pick him. I wouldn't be surprised if he came straight back ... I think he strengthens England."

Though Flintoff's pace and skill is not in question, there are two big question marks hanging over his game. The first is the ability of his troublesome left ankle to withstand 25 overs in an innings, the prerequisite for a bowler in a four-man attack. The other is the current state of his batting - he managed only 6 in the current match at Hove, and has now gone 114 innings in all forms of the game without hitting a century.

"I wouldn't want to be selecting the side, because I'm not sure you can bank on him coming straight back and giving the amount of overs a Broad or an Anderson would," said Arthur. "He really has to take the place of one of the top six. [The selectors] have got to weigh it up because I'm not quite sure they'll get the balance right there."

Arthur's willingness to speculate on England's selection issues reflected the confidence and satisfaction he was able to take out of South Africa's first foray of their tour. Aside from Mark Boucher, every single member of the top seven managed a lengthy spell in the middle over their three days in Taunton, and the bowlers all enjoyed a useful workout as well.

Off the field, Graeme Smith made encouraging progress in his recuperation from his hamstring tear, while Jacques Kallis has already been passed fit for the four-day warm-up match against Middlesex at Uxbridge on Friday, after recovering well from a bruised elbow. "I think we got everything we wanted out of the game," said Arthur. "In fact I don't think we could have scripted it better.

On the first afternoon, Somerset's captain, Andrew Caddick, had hit out at the flat-pitch policy that had condemned his bowlers to a long and fruitless toil in the first innings, and Arthur was being slightly tongue-in-cheek when he thanked Somerset for their outstanding hospitality. Even so, if there was one quibble he could take from their three days in Taunton, it was the failure of his pace attack to step up their intensity on the final afternoon.

"The one thing we probably lacked a little was we wanted to build our bowlers up," he said, "but we've got another four-day game before the Test so we didn't want to overbowl them either. We probably get better intensity in two-day warm-ups because you bat for one day, bowl for one day, and then the third day tends to drag on a little bit, but we're very happy with where we're at. Our focus is on July 10, and everything we do is leading up to that day."