Caddick eclipsed by Flintoff fears

Third Test: England's spearhead returns, but the injury clouds over the talisman grow ever larger

Stephen Brenkley
Sunday 18 August 2002 00:00 BST
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Smart observers wondered not long ago if England would ever again manage 300 in the first innings of a Test match. They still do. But expectations have changed. Whereas the fear used to be that the innings would peter out for 247, the sudden supposition is that England will go on and on and on. To the stars and beyond.

England lead 1-0 in this series and such is their batting form that they should be hard-pressed to be bowled out twice by India in either of the two remaining matches. They named a squad of 13 yesterday for the Third Test which starts at Headingley on Thursday, with only one change from the drawn second match.

Andrew Caddick, who has recovered from a side strain, comes in for Craig White, who has sustained one. England's main concern will be that the legion of players who were placed on the casualty list during the match at Nottingham and are now off it do not go on it again.

The biggest worry must be the all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. From a peripheral naughty boy a year ago he has suddenly become the fulcrum of the team. It is always difficult to do without fulcrums but it is better if they are replaced while the machine is not operating, rather than going wrong with the whole works running at full tilt.

The man they call Freddie is known to be suffering from a long-term groin strain which requires surgery. This would take him a month from which to recover. England naturally want him to play, but it does not need a degree in medicine or physiotherapy to recognise that playing him for five days in an intense Test match may aggravate the injury.

England have previous in regard to Flintoff. They pushed him too hard before, when his back was causing problems. The sensible recourse would be to pack him off for remedial attention forthwith. Flintoff is 24, he has a long and auspicious career ahead and England have an obligation to ensure it is as long and auspicious as they can make it.

The Third Test against India in the year 2002 may seem of overriding cricketing importance now. Not when you consider the runs Flintoff can make and the wickets he can take in the next decade, and how many of them this match could cost him.

It is a pity, but there you are. David Graveney acknowledged yesterday that Flintoff might not make it but said there were no plans for a replacement. They had other options, he said.

While Flintoff has become an integral part of the side, so was Marcus Trescothick until he was injured. England have managed to cover for him.

It has been a heartening summer for this team, who somehow through breakdown and happenstance have blended the old and the new. Three graduates of the National Academy – Simon Jones, Steve Harmison and Robert Key – have been given a go, four if you count the previously capped Alex Tudor.

The batting has been a constant source of encouragement. In one of their Test innings this season, their most recent, they made more than 600, in two others they passed 500 and in a fourth they mustered 487. Four years ago they went nine successive matches without reaching 300, in five of them falling short of 200. The pitches have improved, the opposition bowlers this season have been generally of moderate international standard, but by any standards on any surfaces it has been some batting.

The order for Thursday's match was a shoo-in. In the continued absence of Trescothick, whose broken thumb is still on the mend, the selectors picked Michael Vaughan, Key, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, John Crawley and Alec Stewart as their top six.

All but Key have made Test hundreds this summer, and since the Kent opener has played only one match he can be forgiven. If he were to score a century at Headingley in the match which starts on Thursday it would provide the selectors with one of those headaches for which no aspirin is required.

Their conundrum then would be whether to recall a fit Trescothick at The Oval. Considering the Somerset left-hander's supreme form before his injury there would be no realistic option.

England's batsmen have scored 10 hundreds this summer, a remarkable effort. Crucially, they have been helped in their endeavours by a wagging tail. This was marked in no better way than by Matthew Hoggard's innings in Nottingham.

Hoggard was an old-fashioned rabbit with a career average of six, but under the insistent encouragement of the coach, Duncan Fletcher, he has improved beyond measure. He has worked at it, too, seizing every opportunity to beat the bowling machine. If the Yorkshireman's determined away-swing as a bowler has been the major feature of the season, his contribution down the order has embodied England's burgeoning batting. They will need all this and more in Australia.

Despite the high number of casualties who limped away from Nottingham, Caddick for White is the only change. It is hardly a like-for-like replacement. England will miss White as much as they need Caddick, but the tail becomes suddenly longer again. Caddick has had two matches for Somerset since his strain healed, bowling better in the first than the second.

The pitch at Headingley – as well as the state of Flintoff's groin – will determine the side. It is difficult to see Cork making the XI, but that has been said before. He really is not the bowler he was, but the trouble is this has been the case for two years.

He may play if they send Flintoff home with Harmison also missing out. There would be no classified all-rounder in the side then – apart from Alec Stewart – but the other way of looking at it as that they are all all-rounders now.

Headingley squad

N Hussain (Essex, capt) Age: 34, Tests: 73; M P Vaughan (Yorkshire) 27, 21; R W T Key (Kent) 23, 1; M A Butcher (Surrey) 29, 45; J P Crawley (Hampshire) 30, 32; A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt) 39, 120; A Flintoff (Lancashire) 24, 20; D G Cork (Derbyshire) 31, 36; A R Caddick (Somerset) 33, 55; M J Hoggard (Yorks) 25, 13; S J Harmison (Durham) 23, 1; A F Giles (Warwickshire) 29, 16; A J Tudor (Surrey) 24, 7.

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