Flintoff given positive spin

Flintoff: vital experience

He's got a little more skill certainly than I thought before I arrived and watched him close up. He's got quite a lot of skill for such a big, strong bloke, he's quite deft.

Andy Flower
Quotes of the week

India v England
Seven ODIs, Nov 14-Dec 2
Live on Sky Sports, click here for full listings

Related links

Teams

• England

Players

• Andrew Flintoff

Also see

• Sky Sports experts
• Live scores
• Bet now

England batting coach Andy Flower says Andrew Flintoff can make a big impact with the willow in India.

The pair have been working hard to improve Flintoff's method against spin and the initial signs are good after the Lancashire all-rounder scored an unbeaten century in the opening warm-up fixture against Mumbai on Sunday.

England won the game by 122 runs and Flower is confident Flintoff can take his form into the seven-match one-day international series, which starts in Rajkot on November 14.

"You can be a good player of spin and play in different ways," explained Flower, who averaged 117 during his five Tests for Zimbabwe in India.

"The basics of batting apply but I think someone like Flintoff can't use the same sort of methods like (Ravi) Bopara or (Ian) Bell could because they are light on their feet and they can get forward and back easily.

"He's a big, strong bloke and he's got to play differently for physical reasons, but there are different ways of doing it.

"Some of the basics, some of the most important things like picking up length and moving and being quite clear about how you play spin out here, and how you play spin individually.

Understand

"If you can work that out, understand yourself your game against spin, you've got quite a good chance."

Flintoff already has plenty of experience in Indian conditions, having played six Tests and 11 one-day internationals in the country.

Flower has attempted to help him manoeuvre the ball better and be quicker on his feet.

"He's got a little more skill certainly than I thought before I arrived and watched him close up," admitted Flower. "He's got quite a lot of skill for such a big, strong bloke, he's quite deft.

"I think we saw a bit of that against the South Africans in the one-dayers in England, especially at Headingley when he let some of their quicks come on to the bat and placed it either side of point and over point by playing it late - he showed a lot of skill for a big bloke.

"He played well against South Africa and this will be a different challenge for him against spin, but he did quite well the last time he was here and scored a few 50s in the Test series so he's got experience of the conditions which will hold him in really good stead.

"I've enjoyed working with him. When he puts his game head on or his practice head on he's serious about his business which is the way it should be. He's worked really hard and I thought you could see some of that control and that controlled power on Sunday.

Difficult

"It will be more difficult as he comes against the better bowlers but if he can keep the same sort of control and the same sort of mentality, he's got a good chance of doing well."

England are also currently considering how best to utilise the new regulations for one-day internationals regarding powerplays, which were previously decided by the bowling side when they utilised their fielding restrictions.

The first 10 overs of every innings will still have enforced fielding restrictions but one of the two blocks of five further overs of powerplays are now at the discretion of the batting side, which changes the emphasis from defensive to attacking.

"We'll be discussing it, obviously, because it's something we haven't come across in competition yet," said Flower.

"It's going to make a difference and how we're going to most take advantage of it is something that we're discussing and we'll have another go at it tomorrow.

"You can discuss it until the cows come home but until the guys actually experience it in the middle you don't quite know how it's going to work out.

"I think players are smart and will find proficient ways of using whatever rules are in place, so that's what we'll try to do and we'll try to do it better than the opposition."

Those new regulations are in place again on Tuesday for England's final warm-up match when they face a side calling themselves the MCC, but who are effectively Mumbai's second string.