145;Tricky series146; for the new Botham

England were playing India in the Bangalore Test in 2001 when a young lad with a big heart came up with an inspired spell on the second day ...

England were playing India in the Bangalore Test in 2001 when a young lad with a big heart came up with an inspired spell on the second day of the match. It made former all-rounder Ian Botham sit up and take notice. 8216;8216;He has it in him to be the best,8217;8217; Botham had said, watching the 22-year-old Andrew Flintoff 8212; then England8217;s all-rounder in the making 8212; finish the day with a three-wicket haul.

Flintoff had worked up good pace, made India8217;s top batsmen hop at his short-pitched stuff, and had delivered the killer punch with VVS Laxman8217;s prized wicket. Flintoff, then, wasn8217;t even half the performer he is today. It should give him enough confidence when England take on India in the first Test beginning early next month.

8216;8216;There is a tricky series waiting,8217;8217; he says now, as his side looks to a Test series victory in India, something that has eluded them for 22 years. If Flintoff could play a huge role in helping England win the Ashes after 18 years, he now takes it as a personal responsibility to ensure that his team manages to defeat India in India after more than two decades a fact that the visiting journalists now reckon as England8217;s final frontier.

8216;8216;The oddball skids through. The oddball swings,8217;8217; he says when you ask him whether England8217;s bowling arsenal is good enough to win them a Test series on India8217;s slow dustbowls. But more specifically, Flintoff is convinced that he will be 8216;8216;surprised8217;8217; if the ball doesn8217;t spin. He explains that in India, one cannot help but arrive with preconceived notions. Whether out of experience, or from what they8217;ve heard back home, playing in India 8216;8216;is an experience in its own.8217;8217;

The Australians see this man as a mirror-image of Botham. 8216;8216;It8217;s Both all over again,8217;8217; said former Australia captain Kim Hughes after Australia lost the Ashes, relating the nightmare that Flintoff gave the Aussies last year to what Botham did in 1981. Partly due to the nightmare of the Australians, but mostly for what Flintoff is capable of, the game8217;s greatest thinkers today believe that this man is currently the best counter-attacking cricketer playing. 8216;8216;You8217;re thinking, st, if this bloke bats for an hour, he8217;ll have taken the game away,8217;8217; is how an Aussie cricketer reacted after Flintoff finished the Ashes with 322 runs and 19 wickets.

As an understatement, Flintoff explains: 8216;8216;Past will not matter. India are a different ballgame.8217;8217;

8216;Tough8217; and 8216;challenging8217; are the words he constantly keeps dropping when asked about this series. Ask him about the weather, and he replies: 8216;8216;At this time, it8217;s -2 degrees in England.8217;8217; Flintoff has ensured that he trims his hair as short as possible, to adjust to the heat and sweat. 8216;8216;I8217;m in a better position to handle the situation now than last time,8217;8217; he explains.