Faith, hope and Freddie

Despite such an emphatic defeat, England should not panic. All they need is a result pitch, a returning hero, and a miracle, says Mike Atherton in the Times. In Atherton's view the must-pick players for an Oval shoot-out are faith, hope and Andrew Flintoff.

In his post-match press conference yesterday, Strauss said that Flintoff had to be able to fulfil his duties as a bowler to be considered. In other words, he has to be able to bowl three spells in the day, which Strauss, presumably under medical advice, felt he would not be able to do at Headingley. Even so, Flintoff’s presence at No 7 would have stiffened a flimsy-looking line-up and the player himself is surely the best judge of whether he can get through a match or not. If he says he is fit at the Oval, he must play.

The Independent's James Lawton says that in the absence of their crippled talisman Flintoff and their most talented batsman Kevin Pietersen, England haplessly shed all semblance of being a team.

They were a rabble, an ill-tempered bunch of no-hopers and the decline was so steep, so unbroken in every phase of the match that mattered, it was impossible not to conclude that it will take a lot more than a miraculous flight to Lourdes by Flintoff and Pietersen to restore the damage – and any competitive balance to an Ashes series which some of the more romantically inclined believed was within England's grasp on Friday morning.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain feels this is no time to judge Flintoff.

In the Australian, Malcomn Conn says Flintoff is on course to find out what Steve Waugh often preached; there are no fairly tales in sport.