Flintoff must stay out
In his Yahoo column, Graham Thorpe hopes the England selectors will resist from bringing Andrew Flintoff back into the national side, that has moved on since his glory days.
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
In his Yahoo column, Graham Thorpe hopes the England selectors will resist from bringing Andrew Flintoff back into the national side, that has moved on since his glory days.
The allrounder has been out of action since last summer due to knee surgery, and the 32-year-old has become more of a celebrity than a cricketer since the final Test at The Oval. Flintoff cannot expect to breeze back into a side which has just won the World Twenty20 and is forming a formidable unit in one-day international cricket. This kind of situation is where the selectors earn their money because there will inevitably be a clamour from the media to bring the Lancastrian straight back in.
In another Yahoo column, Thorpe writes about the possibility of Shaun Tait returning to whites, and on current form thinks England will be concerned by developments on that front.
Ricky Ponting admitted he would love to have Tait in his side for the Ashes, and that all depends on the balance of his pace attack as a whole. If the likes of Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle can rattle through a hefty number of overs between them, it would allow Tait to play purely as a strike bowler. Whoever else Australia pick in their pace attack, they would have to be the economical, work-horse type what could enable Tait to fly in with short, sharp and destructive spells. It is in these situations that coaches need to be brave, and Tim Nielsen will know that if Tait is asked to play in the Ashes he would surely do so - but is he courageous enough to pick his side accordingly?
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo