Flintoff: iconic cricketer

If England are really going to progress they need Flintoff at six, scoring runs, the wicketkeeper at seven scoring runs and Stuart Broad at eight. The sooner they can get that right, the sooner they can kick on.

Nasser Hussain
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ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA
Second npower Test
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I wasn't too disappointed with any aspect of England's performance in the first Test - it was just the pitch that won.

It tends to be a belter at Lord's and through no fault of groundsman Mick Hunt, there just wasn't the pace in it that the quicker bowlers need to fire them.

England did play some excellent cricket though and perhaps the only area they came up short in was a lack of pace and variety in their attack.

That was the blueprint for the Ashes success in 2005 and the six-month period after that: Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff had the variety and dovetailed perfectly.

The sooner England can get back to that varied, five-man attack the sooner they can be successful again.

They need it to beat South Africa at home, they'll need it to win in India and will certainly need it to beat the Australians - wait until they come over next summer and play on good pitches.

I do think we have been spoilt a little bit by playing against some mediocre batting line-ups when you can get away with four bowlers. But as we saw at Lord's South Africa are a very, very good batting side.

Which means we will see the return of Flintoff at Headingley.

Iconic

If England are really going to progress they need him at six, scoring runs, the wicketkeeper at seven scoring runs and Stuart Broad at eight. The sooner they can get that right, the sooner they can kick on.

Admittedly Flintoff is not scoring many runs at the moment, but the presumption is he will do that in time and fill that genuine all-rounder's role.

But he has to come back into the fold as part of a five-man attack. Headingley doesn't always turn in the first innings so Monty Panesar might not bowl much, so you would then depend on three seam bowlers and would need 20 to 25 overs from Flintoff first up - and that would worry me.

Of course, England will monitor Ryan Sidebottom's fitness and Stuart Broad's progress - I think he might be under-rated with the bat, but over-rated with the ball - but to get five in the attack a batsman has to drop out and that means Paul Collingwood.

He was very unlucky to be given out at Lord's but in all honesty he hasn't been getting many runs, and above all you have to pick your best side. You don't stick with the same one for the sake of it and England are a better equipped side with Flintoff in it.

What they are getting is a bowler with genuine pace, good bounce, a great all-rounder and an iconic cricketer.

Of course, all the media attention will be on him but the focus has to spread throughout the team. Every other England player needs to take responsibility because you might manage it against New Zealand, but you won't beat South Africa with half a team.

Atmosphere

I do think the tourists' pace attack was over-hyped in the build-up to this series; you'd have thought they were that legendary West Indies attack of the 1980's!

Morne Morkel after all, had only taken 17 Test wickets going into this, Dale Steyn had never bowled at Lord's and with Makhaya Ntini I just wonder whether, a little like Hoggard, as he gets older he might have lost that little bit of pace - although you can't judge any bowler on that pitch at Lord's.

Headingley will pose a different set of problems though. There is a slope there, the atmosphere means bowlers have to deliver and have to perform well.

If it is cloudy the seamers tend to get plenty out of it but if the sun shines - which it doesn't always do over Leeds - it can be flat in the first innings and then deteriorate on day four and five.

England do have good memories of playing South Africa there though and they will need to keep playing at those levels they showed at Lord's.

Two strong batting line-up's means there might not be too many wins around and by his own admission, Graeme Smith's side were under-cooked at Lord's. So maybe an opportunity was missed.