Flower finds out the cost of failing to prepare

London: Andy Flower is hiding the hurt well. Neither the physical pain of his recent London Marathon run, nor the frustration of losing four consecutive Tests last winter, are immediately apparent as he talks excitedly and typically thoughtfully at New Road, Worcester.

He has been talking all day. There has already been a full selection meeting. A Lions side has been chosen. Many other subjects have been addressed. But Flower, bright-eyed and a few pounds lighter, is still as fresh and vibrant as I have seen him for a long time.

The V-shaped scar on his face, courtesy of an operation to remove a melanoma during the last Ashes tour, is still evident, but it is neat and well-healed; an instant reminder of one of the three charities for which he ran for exactly four hours, 45 minutes and 15 seconds last month.

Flower didn't prepare thoroughly enough. The furthest he had run beforehand was 24 kilometres, and then only because England were beaten in four days by Sri Lanka in Galle, using the scheduled fifth day as a training day while his players contemplated another horrible loss.

"I just hadn't done the days, hadn't done the miles," he admits. "A bit like your team before the Pakistan series in the UAE," I venture somewhat mischievously, although safe in the knowledge that Flower used the word "undercooked" about their preparation then.

He laughs. "Nice comparison," he laughs again. What of the winter then, where England lost those four Tests and won only the last in Colombo? How does it look now? Better or worse than at the time? "Neither," Flower says, "I would just say that it was a series of opportunities that we missed.

"There were certainly opportunities to win against Pakistan. If we had batted properly we would have beaten them. It was a great opportunity to cement our No 1 place in the world and also win a series away against an Asian side.

"That might sound strange considering we lost 3-0, but there were periods in all those Tests when if we'd batted in a reasonable fashion we would have got into positions to win them."

What happened to the batting then? "We weren't skilful enough against the spin," he says. OK, we know that, but why? "Our individual methods were not clear enough in the individuals' minds," he replies.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012