England are planning to tap into the Old Trafford experience of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff before naming their side to face Australia in the third Ashes Test starting here on Thursday.
England captain Michael Vaughan did not reveal his starting line-up on Wednesday despite all the players who featured in England's dramatic two-run second Test win at Edgbaston on Sunday, which levelled the five-match series at 1-1, being fit.
The hosts have retained uncapped paceman Chris Tremlett in their 12-man squad and Vaughan indicated to reporters here on Tuesday that England were thinking about handing the Hampshire seamer, who made his one-day international in June where he took two wickets in two balls against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge, a Test debut.
Asked if England had decided on their 11, Vaughan replied: "No not yet. We just want to see the conditions and have a good long chat with Freddie (Flintoff). It's his home ground. He knows the conditions better than most, certainly over the last year or so.
"We haven't played that much here so we are going to try to use his experience and see which is the best way to go," added Vaughan, whose Yorkshire team-mate Matthew Hoggard would appear to be the most likely candidate to make way if Tremlett were to feature in this Test.
"We want to have a look at the options of normal swing (Hoggard's speciality), reverse swing, bounce (Tremlett), all the areas that you cover in a normal game of cricket.
"We probably won't decide until the last minute."
All-rounder Flintoff, man-of-the-match at Edgbaston with figures of seven for 131 and key scores of 68 and 73, is now set to play his 50th Test in front of his adoring Lancashire public.
"It's difficult to say if there's more to come from him. He didn't get five for and he didn't get a hundred. That's the one area where he could get better," Vaughan said.
"It was an incredible game for the team but it was certainly a magnificent game for Freddie." England's latest victory was their first in a 'live' Ashes Test since winning the first match of the 1997 series, also at Edgbaston."
"I always think momentum's great but it can be difficult to deal with," explained Vaughan, hoping to become the first England captain in nine series to win the Ashes.
"Everyone said Australia had the momentum going into Edgbaston (after winning last month's first Test at Lord's by 239 runs). "But for the first three days we dominated the game and it was only that last morning (when Australia's final two wickets added 104 runs) where they came back in."
Both Vaughan, who bats at four, and number three Ian Bell have both struggled for runs in a series where no batsman from either side had yet to score a century.
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