Vaughan's love of out and out pace is questionable: Fletcher had that obsession... but I'm not sure Vaughan ever shared it. That's not to say he'd turn his nose up at the prospect of Flintoff being fit for the SA series... or at a return for the seemingly resurgent Simon Jones... but he always did have more regard than Fletcher (for instance) for the dependability of Hoggard over the greater penetration of Anderson... and (aside from the gloveman matter, where I just don't see Mustard / Read / Foster getting in) I still have high hopes for his partnership with Moores / Miller.

On your other point... Vaughan's thinking on 4 and 5 men attacks has (by his own admission) shifted: he's now fully behind the idea of Flintoff returning... but as part of a 4 man attack. For all his talk of players "expressing themselves" he's always had that Gower-like determination to make the other team really work for and earn anything they get: he's always seemed to me to accept that modern cricket is won by perspiration more often than by inspiration: he'll gladly take the wins that come through inspirational performances... but he hates the initiative being conceded by straining too hard to go beyond just building pressure.

Bottom line: senior players (incl. Strauss, Pietersen, Collingwood and Sidebottom) are being backed to return to form, good long term prospects are being invested in (incl. Cook, Bell, Broad and - in their view if not in mine - Ambrose and Anderson), and no-one is really battering down the door to demand the place of anyone in the current XI.