Flintoff upbeat ahead of must-win encounter

For the second time in about four months, an England venture in the subcontinent is threatening to go pear-shaped. In Pakistan late last season they were outclassed thoroughly, and unless they stage a dramatic recovery from their result at Mohali, a second series defeat could follow, one which will end all their immediate prospects of considering themselves the second-best side in the world.

To be fair to this England outfit, they have fought against numerous odds and have so far given a pretty good account of themselves. Despite losing three key members before the series, they dominated India for large periods at Nagpur, and started well at Mohali before crumbling in one fatal session, and Andrew Flintoff, the stand-in captain who has led with admirable courage and positivity so far, refuses to believe his team can't fight back in this must-win encounter.

Even so, they have suffered a further setback just a couple of days before the game - Steve Harmison, a key member of an attack already missing Simon Jones, will undergo an X-ray to indicate the extent of the damage on his right shin, which has been sore since the Mohali Test. "At this stage he is not ruled out of the Test match," Flintoff stated. "He still has a chance of playing. If you don't have a player like Harmy, of course it is a blow." For a team already struggling with personnel, this is a blow they could do without.

There are problems galore, but the captain was still in good cheer. "[With] the effort we put in so far, I don't think at this stage we ought to be going home losing a Test series. It is a must-win game for us to draw the series. I think we deserve to do that and we can do that," he said at a press conference, conviction writ large in those statements.

Flintoff himself has done little wrong so far, averaging almost 55 with the bat and taking seven wickets to boot. However, he needs more support, especially on the batting front. "To compete you need a big score first innings and that means a hundred from one of our batsmen. In the last test we got starts - myself and KP [Kevin Pietersen] got a 60 and a 70, and there was a fifty and a 40. It will be nice if someone can go on and make a big 100 and get us past 400." More likely, that will be critical to England's chances of salvaging this Test series.

One aspect of their game, though, which has been top-class is their bowling: Matthew Hoggard has not only taken wickets, he has also looked the most threatening; Flintoff and Harmison both extracted plenty from a responsive Mohali track, while their spinner, Monty Panesar, has exceeded all expectations - with bat as well as ball - in the couple of games he has played. With Harmison in doubt, though, even their bowling is looking suspect.

Flintoff admitted that the team was looking at the option of playing two spinners, and if that does happen, India will surely look to attack Panesar's spin partner. From what was seen of Ian Blackwell at Nagpur, he hardly qualifies as a Test spinner, while Shaun Udal, seen within the squad as the third spin option, will hardly create tremors in the Indian ranks either.

So England have issues with their personnel, their batting, and their overall consistency. With so much riding on one match, talk of changing tactics has been mooted too. Should England force the pace, come hard at the Indians with both bat and ball at every opportunity, throw caution to the wind? Flintoff himself plays that way most of the time, but for the team, the watchword is attrition. "I don't think we need to force the game too much. We come out to the subcontinent, in Pakistan and at times in India, it is more of a war of attrition. The game is a lot slower, It is not like in England where the ball is flying everywhere and you are scoring 4-5 runs an over.

"You have to sit in for longer periods of time, both with bat and ball and try and make a result on the last day So I don't think our tactics or game plans will change, I think we need to do the simple things correctly. We have done it for periods of time. We just need to extend the time we do it for."

The plans are in place. Come Saturday, it'll be time for their execution.

England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff (capt), 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Shaun Udal, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.