An alarm call may not rouse him, but the first opportunity to intimidate an Australian opener is a siren in Flintoff's brain
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Australia's Philip Hughes smiles after ducking a bouncer from England's Andrew Flintoff. Photograph: Gareth Copley/PA
To say Andrew Flintoff is playing for his place in this England side would sound grotesque to the young Australian opener, Phillip Hughes, whose priority in the face of big Fred's bouncers after lunch was merely to keep his head attached to his shoulders. But there is a sense around the camp that Flintoff owes the team one for his Rip Van Winkle act when he was meant to be boarding a bus to visit first world war graves in Ypres.
An alarm call may not rouse him, but the first opportunity to intimidate an Australian opener is a siren in Flintoff's brain. The first great duel of this 2009 series pitted a rampaging Lancastrian giant against a jump jockey-sized 20-year-old who had been softened up at Worcester by Flintoff's mate and fellow darts enthusiast, Steve Harmison. The many sides of Harmison may return at Lord's to double the heat on Hughes.
The sages say Flintoff is experiencing a new rush of freedom as he enters the autumn of his career. Shorn of the captaincy he made such a shambles of in Australia in 2006-07 he now has only his art to declare. All that flannel about him "working harder than ever" to overcome his latest injury sounded like another PR handout until his first over of the match brought the day's action to scintillating life.
This first Test shifted up a gear as Flintoff thundered into Hughes and put him down on his haunches. Matthew Hayden's successor had learned from his peppering by Harmison not to defend the rising ball throat-high. So Hughes trampolined under Flintoff's assault until his habit of cutting outside the off-stump brought an inside edge that travelled to Matt Prior's gloves.
Hughes, on his Ashes debut, had gone for 36, and Flintoff tried out his new wicket-taking pose: still, with both arms fully erect, like a man being pulled into the sky. No one had dared predict that he would return to front-line bowling with such ferocious intent. Whatever is holding his body together could be put to good military use.
But England, they say, no longer regard Flintoff's absences as dead-time that has to be filled until the superstar returns. The dynamic has altered with each abuse of discipline, and now every Flintoff over is an instalment on his debt from Ypres and all his previous indiscretions. Australia must be wishing he had made that bus.
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