'I can't wait to get to India' - Flintoff

Andrew Flintoff, the England captain, has admitted that he is eagerly awaiting his return to the England side for the Champions Trophy. Flintoff has shaken off the effects of surgery on his left ankle which kept him sidelined for most of the English summer.

England had been planning to use Flintoff purely as a batsman in the Champions Trophy to keep him fresh for the Ashes defence starting in Australia in November. Flintoff also insisted he would bowl only if he reaches full fitness.

"I'm confident I'll be fine after the work I've done so far," he said. "The 12-week rehab programme finishes in mid-October, to coincide with the India trip. It's going well at the moment. Everything I've done has responded well to the operation. I've been batting, I've done a few walk-through drills with the ball and I'll build up and see how I feel when I start to bowl a bit quicker."

Flintoff, however, feared that the international careers of top-class players will inevitably be shortened by the seemingly non-stop round of Tests and one-day internationals. "I believe careers are going to get shorter with the amount of cricket we are playing," he continued. "It's not seasonal for us any more. We play in the summer and then we go away. If you look at the schedule we have got in the next few months there's not a great deal of time off. We've got the ICC [Champions] Trophy, the Ashes; then when we get back from the World Cup we start back again in England next summer. For bowlers, especially, it's inevitable - with the strains and stresses - that they won't be able to go on as long as players did in the past."

But Flintoff, who missed most of the recently concluded English season, rejected suggestions made by legendary England allrounder Ian Botham that he should miss the Champions Trophy in order to be fully fit for the Ashes. "I can't wait to go to India, to be honest," said Flintoff. "I've missed 12 weeks of the season. I've trained hard and worked hard to get back out on the cricket field, so India is something I'm desperately looking forward to."