Sending Flintoff to bat that late reveals Pietersen's inexperience

London: People keep asking me whether England have lost the plot in India. I reply that they never found it. Sunday night's match was a typical example of muddled thinking: how can you go out to bat for 22 overs, with the required run-rate hovering around nine runs per over, and leave your two most destructive players sitting on their backsides in the pavilion?

Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara are both good batsmen, pretty to watch, full of classy touches and nice timing. But are they the kind of players who can slog the ball out of the ground? Absolutely not. They have trained themselves to play correct cricket shots, not to heave across the line.

We saw when Andrew Flintoff got going just what could be achieved with a more muscular approach, but his cameo came too late. If you get off to a bad start in a 22-over match, you will always be playing catch-up cricket.

I would like to know who is making the decisions in this England team. I suspect it is Kevin Pietersen, as he usually likes to run things his way. But if so, he is showing his inexperience as a leader. Whoever worked out the batting order for Sunday night's game needs their head testing.

Wrong right-handers

Even in a 50-over game, like the one at Kanpur last week, I would not go in with Bell and Bopara as openers. I would get Flintoff out there straight away: he is the man with the power to put the Indian bowlers on the defensive.

When England send out a couple of regulation right-handers to open their innings - and Matt Prior fits into this category as well, by the way - they are simply missing the boat. Again and again in this series, they have got off to sluggish starts. Pietersen needs to learn from the Indians, who go hard at the ball from the word go.

When I say that Flintoff should open, I am not recommending that as a universal solution.

Certainly you wouldn't want to throw him away against the new ball in England, where it nips about early on. But that is not so much of a problem in India.

The first few overs are the best time to bat. The ball skids on nicely, the fielders are inside the circle, and you have plenty of time ahead of you to pace your innings. Best of all, as far as Flintoff is concerned, you can get your eye in before the spinners come on.