Andrew Flintoff

Seven one-day matches against India, seven opportunities to see if England can solve a problem like Freddie Flintoff by allowing him to open the batting.

The middle-order is a tricky place to bat in one-day cricket, one that requires constant computation between risk and run-rate, a pressure eased by the ability to manoeuvre the ball between gaps in the field.

Flintoff has the chess player’s mind to deal with the first but not the deft strokes to achieve the second. He is either ‘block’ or ‘shock’, which has its place but not No 6, his usual place.

So why not give him licence to blast, something both he and the crowd enjoy?

After all Marcus Trescothick, England’s premier master-blaster is no longer available, and while Flintoff doesn’t have the range of stroke, he more than matches him for power.

Ian Botham did it, with some success towards the end of his career. When he succeeded, there were spin-offs for the other batsmen in the team as bowlers — Australia’s Simon “Sniffer” Davis is one who comes to mind in the 1986/7 Perth Challenge — went to pieces under the onslaught.

Flintoff, who has in the past batted at three for England, could open with Matt Prior, or even Alastair Cook, if some measured batting was required at one end.

Ian Bell could then operate at three, to exploit good starts or, alternatively, mop up after bad ones.

After him would come Kevin Pietersen and captain Paul Collingwood, leaving the wristy brilliance of Owais Shah and steely nerves of Ravi Bopara to occupy Flintoff’s old position in the knotty middle-order.

It probably won’t happen. Conservatism is endemic in England cricket, despite the lack of obvious benefits it has brought, at least in the one-day game.

Peter Moores, the England coach, said the other day that planning for the World Cup needed to start now and it does.

But some of those plans need to be bold. You can only win playing the law of averages when you have a great side to do it.

Everyone else has to gamble.