They proved me wrong

Well done to the England boys for salvaging a draw from the India test series. OK, so it’s not exactly beating Australia, and there’s only so much triumphancy in saying “YEH, WE WON so we um, er didn’t, er, *ahem*, er lose the series.”

In fairness, the bowlers did an outstanding job on the last day, not in just taking the 9 required wickets, but in making India look very very silly in the process. Which is always good.

And it really makes you wonder… is Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff actually God, I mean actually God..? The man go do no wrong at the moment. Just when it seemed like the arrival of Kevin Pieterson was going to overshadow England cricket’s golden boy, Fred just stepped up about three gears. Not content with just being the best bowler in the team, and one of the best batsmen in the world, he has now successfully juggled these two responsibilities with possibly the biggest of them all – captaining the side as well. It is well documented for areas of team captains’ game to flounder, which tends to be batting (the only recent bowler captain I can think of is Imran Khan, and it didn’t seemed to phase him). Anyway, I digress, Fred has done a terrific job under impossible circumstances.

What will happen for the upcoming tour will depend ultimately on the injury status of the team – with so many players suffering one way or another, the team could be anything for its next outing – a home test series against Sri Lanka in May. I would be surprised to see Flintoff remain as captain if Vaughan is fit, but you wonder if Trescothick will get another shot at captaincy after what Fred has achieved.