It's a mark of strength on both sides that either could manage without these key players: Lee would presumably come in for McGrath and if the recent reports are to be believed he'd make a pretty decent job of bowling alongside Gillespie and Kaspa; Key or Collingwood would presumably come in for Flintoff.. and whilst that would put an additional responsibility on Jones / Anderson (whoever was playing)... movig them from a half-workload to a full workload... I'm not sure the side would look that much weaker.

The biggest impact on England might be psychological: the talisman thing.

IN terms of comparative impact... if both were managing their current form... I suspect there wouldn't be much in it: McGrath will presumably take 20+ wickets over 5 Tests.... mostly top order batsmen and probably at 20ish a piece... and stick around briefly at the end of innings... where Flintoff might be expected to make maybe 300-400 runs at 30-40 and provide a welcome 5th bowling option to spell the 4 specialist bowlers.

In terms of quantifiable impact I don't doubt for one moment that McGrath will have a bigger negative impact on English scores than Flintoff can counter by posting runs... but that would be true of any batsman: not even Tendulkar or Dravid could single handedly counter the damage done by a premier strike bowler. Thing is... Flintoff will quite probably also help his bowling coleagues perform to a higher level than they otherwise might... bowling.. catching.. and just through being there... and I think that would help even things out.

That said.. I think England would gladly take McGrath over Flintoff if they could pick either... and would probably sacrifice Flintoff if that meant they didn't have to face McGrath... but I don't think the reverse would be true.

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Admin - Link to original thread in the England forum: Who Is Worth THE Most?.>
Nominated by Zainub Razvi.