London, July 28: With the Ashes at stake, England are prepared to take Andrew Flintoff through hell. Since the warrior himself is willing to make a similar journey there are likely to be no arguments, although both parties must hope that going to Birmingham this week and Leeds next will be quite enough.
Andrew Strauss, the captain who kept Flintoff going through 10 magnificent, pain-filled overs as the side took a 1-0 lead in the series on the fifth morning at Lord’s last week, said yesterday: “If we get to a winning situation and he is the right bowler to take us to victory, we will be expecting to see him put in a similar amount of effort.”
Strauss will be eager to protect his key strike bowler, who is retiring from Test matches at the end of the series and has suddenly discovered the bowling form of his life. But Flintoff is also his go-to bowler for almost all match positions and he has only three matches, at most, to go to him.
–Agencies