Andrew Flintoff is, without doubt, an English cricket revelation.  Yes, he may have had a few problems off the field, but compared to some other English sports stars he is quite a tame character, Until that is, he reaches the cricket pitch.  England play with a different attitude when Flintoff is named in the team.

This younger England one-day team is starting to make its mark on the international scene, but maybe the  batting order could be re-arranged slightly to give the big hitters more of a chance to get some runs on the board in the early overs and put pressure on the opposition.

Matt Prior has been given the chance to open during the current series against india, but although hitting a few good shots he has rarely made an impact with the bat. Could Flintoff do a better job? When he bats at No.5 or No.6 are we really giving the great man enough time to win the game for his team?

'England play with a different attitude when Flintoff is named in the team'


He can strike the ball harder than any other player in the team, and isn't this what we need when fielding restrictions are in place during the Powerplay overs at the beginning of the match? Can you imagine what the score would be if Flintoff batted through the innings for England? He could have the score over 100 by the first 10 overs! A perfect start.

Yes, he would sometimes get out cheaply going for a few shots, but isn't it worth the risk? And the crowds would love it! Alistair Cook and Ian bell are great players, solid in their batting, but do they go for the runs as quickly as they should? Are they too defensive? Even if Flintoff batted at No.3 he could make his mark, but he's often only able to get a few overs at the end of an innings to show what he can do. 

I feel England need to concentrate on their batting in one-day matches especially coming up to the Twenty20 World Cup next month. The bowling seems to be getting better, but England need to continue to lengthen their batting line up to maximise their potential scores. Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Stuart Broad look excellent acquisitions into the team as they can all bat and ball. Perfect!

We should be using these one-day matches with India to experiment with things such as the batting line-ups. Flintoff is wasted down the order! Promote the Lancastrian hitman.

Would it be a good idea to promote Flintoff to opener? Post your comments below or submit an article to Sportingo.