Andrew Flintoff showed flashes of quality on Monday and especially with the bat he can get better. He played some good shots on Monday and he is a big strong buy who can hit the ball a long way.
But it is his bowling that is his real strength. He puts the ball back of a length at a good pace and more often than not he puts it in the right place and he is so hard to get away.
His fielding is fantastic, he has buckets for hands and brings an awful lot to the team.
Jacob Oram will be the man to replace Freddie Flintoff when he leaves after a fortnight, but it is clear that Flintoff will be a huge loss for Chennai. It is a shame he is only there for a fortnight, but I think Oram will come in and Muralitharan will play all the games.
Freddie’s bowling is much stronger than Oram, while they are similar with the bat and are both good fielders. Chennai do have two players who are similar and that helps.
People have said, so has Fred, that he has gone over to improve his game, but let’s not get it wrong he is there for the money. But while they are there they are playing a good standard of cricket and will make their reputations better.
This won’t do the England lads any harm with the Twenty20 World Cup around the corner, but we need them all to play. Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood have not played yet, they are top international players, and I am embarrassed for them a little.
I hope they can get a game and Collingwood has got to get a start for Delhi soon, he is good enough to be in their team.
It must be frustrating for Collingwood not being in the team, but Delhi won their first game and he might not get in.