Andrew Flintoff's batting

Does anyone currently expect Andrew Flintoff to get any runs? We get the impression that even Andrew Flintoff doesn't.

So far his scores this series have been 0, 16, 38 not out, 2, 13, 51 and 13. The 38 not out was a quick dash before the declaration and the 51 was when all hope had gone and England were about to lose the Ashes. He's basically achieved nothing.

This wouldn't be so bad if there were anyone else in the lower order who looked like making a run. As it is, England appear to be fielding six number 10 batsmen. (No-one's quite bad enough to be a number 11.)

We can't wait until something happens that'll make the site funny again. Imagine if Matthew Hayden retires. We'll be royally screwed then.

Virender Sehwag is dropped

India have got two home one-day internationals against the West Indies coming up. They've dropped Virender Sehwag for them.

Virender Sehwag's totally out of form at the minute. It must be particularly hard on him, because he's a real 'feel' player. We imagine that he usually feels like Mr Universe feeling extra-confident. He has a fairly unique approach to the game, which seems to be that almost every ball, good or bad, is there to be hit for four. How you recover that sort of form is beyond most people, so he's on his own.

Bizarrely, Virender Sehwag's one-day record is actually very ordinary. For a player who averages near-enough 50 in Tests and who scores his runs like every over's his last, his one-day average is unexpectedly poor - 31.28. He's played 163 one-day internationals, so it's not misleading.

We hope he gets his game sorted, because we really like him. He's one on his own is our Virender.