Now it is Pringle's turn

If a fortnight ago, Angus Fraser had me in splits declaring Harmison and Flintoff as among the most feared quicks of the last fifteen years, it is Derek Pringle's turn now.

Michael Vaughan, Vaughaknee to some, is on his comeback trail. He made 99 in Yorkshire's county championship game against Middlesex yesterday. Before his 99, he'd played in two games for Yorkshire, scoring 67, 1 & 56.

With England set to play five one-dayers against Sri Lanka after the drawn test series, there is a lot of speculation on whether he will feature in the one-day series.

But before that, England need to name their one-day side for the first few one-dayers at least. They also need to name a captain. So there's yet another captaincy crisis. Current stand-in skipper Andrew Flintoff has an ankle injury. Previous stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick may not want the job.

Given England's reluctance to risk him playing Flintoff when an Ashes series is around the corner, and their general attitude towards one-day cricket, it is widely expected that Andrew Strauss will be named captain.

Writing about the forthcoming one-dayers and how the injuries could benefit England, Derek Pringle wrote in 'The Daily Telegraph':

Missing a colossus like Flintoff, while damaging to morale, is not all bad. When it happened during the one-dayers in India two months ago, Andrew Strauss took over as captain and England played their best cricket of the series, winning one match and narrowly losing the other.

The match that England won was at Jamshedpur when India's batting, aside from Dhoni and Powar, failed miserably with England's bowlers bowling superbly and England chasing down the 224 runs with ease, stand-in stand-in skipper Strauss top-scoring with 74. The match that Pringle says describes as narrowly lost was at Indore.

The problem with his statement is that it wasn't a game that was narrowly lost. England made 288 - a good score, but they ought to have got something like 320, considering the 30 over mark score was 160/3. But thanks to some atrocious shots, especially by Pietersen, who'd savaged VRV Singh earlier, England were all out for 288. India chased down the target with seven wickets and five balls to spare, despite a mid-innings hiccup when Dravid and Uthappa were out within an over of each other. Watching the game live, it seemed more like a thrashing than a close game, despite the fact that the game was only decided in the 100th over of the day.

In any case, if you feel strongly about who England's captain at this year's ICC Champions Trophy should be, go on and vote in the poll!