Flintoff seems like a character out of a Greek Tragedy these days. It was kind of sad seeing him shake his head ruefully and look like a lost King Lear when Symonds and Hayden went on the attack on the second afternoon. He looked like a lonely, desolate figure watching his troops get routed on the field.

But why is this the case? How come the Strausses, Collingwoods and
Hoggards in the team don't join him in mid-field consultations? I
remember all the matches I've watched India play in, and Ganguly (or
Dravid or whoever was captain) would get a lot of advice from other
senior members on the field. Shouldn't Flintoff expect other senior
members to speak up and help him out a little on the field when things
aren't going his way? Especially given that, after all, he's only a
stand-in captain, and not one with years of experience behind him in
leading the team?

I thought Flintoff's captaincy on the field on the second day was very
uninspired. As was pointed out repeatedly by the commentators (rightly
I felt), he was playing to Symonds' strength by applying one-day style
fields for him - Symonds is a brilliant one-day player and he can score
runs quite quickly with ones and twos without taking any risks
whatsoever. That's what all good one-day players do in the overs 15-40.
By setting defensive, one-day fields to Symonds and Hayden, he allowed
the game to drift away from his grasp, and did not increase England's
chances of getting quick wickets.

But why just blame Flintoff? Surely a few suggestions from other
players (or even from the coach during a drinks break) would have
helped him out a little in that difficult second afternoon when morale
must have started sagging for him and the team? This has been the case
throughout the series: Flintoff nevers solicits advice from anyone and
no one ever seems inclined to proffer any to him. I haven't watched
that many series involving England before this, and maybe that is the
way things go with most English teams - perhaps the plans are carefully
prepared in the Dressing Room and executed machine-like on the field
without further inputs from anyone. I hope this is not the case - after
all a test match is a fluid and changing entity, and having the ability
to adapt to some new development (outside of the prepared game-plan)
should be part of good captaincy and leadership as well, I would think.

In any case, I don't think that he will be captain for much longer now.
So I only have to feel sorry for this "tragic colossus facing doom"
character for just another test match before Strauss of Vaughan becomes
the English captain.