Candidates delight Fletcher

Duncan Fletcher hailed Andrew Strauss' leadership against Pakistan © Getty Images

Coach Duncan Fletcher believes the tough decision facing the selectors about the identity of England’s Ashes captain can only benefit the side in the future.

Since taking over as England coach in 1999, Fletcher has always tried to plan ahead to the next captain, the next opening batsman or the next fast bowler.

He has an envied record at identifying emerging players, but has found more difficulty in choosing the next captain until Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss both established themselves as candidates to lead England into this winter’s Ashes series.

It is a tough decision for Fletcher and his fellow selectors - who will reveal the captain for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament and the Ashes tour at the Oval on Tuesday - but one which he claims will benefit the side.

“It’s a great positive from our point of view,” said Fletcher.

“When (Michael) Vaughan first took over we were wondering where the next captain was coming from and it was the same when Nasser (Hussain) was captain and we didn’t know where the next captain was coming from.

“It’s nice to see there are two candidates now, even though I wish it was only one because then we wouldn’t have had this difficult decision.”

Andrew Flintoff and Fletcher celebrate the Test series win in India earlier this year

Strauss led England to a comprehensive Test series win over Pakistan and then saw his injury-hit side come back from 2-0 down to draw the NatWest Series against Pakistan thanks to Sunday's three-wicket win at Edgbaston.

All-rounder Flintoff also impressed with a magnificent Test triumph in Mumbai over the winter and guided England to a drawn home series against Sri Lanka earlier this season.

“It is a very close call,” admitted Fletcher. “They’ve both done very well. Andrew Flintoff did exceptionally well in India because it’s not easy to captain a side out there and then did well at the start of this summer.

“Strauss has also put his hand up in trying if not more trying circumstances because he’s had to captain a side which hasn’t included Andrew Flintoff - he’s a huge bonus to any side and there have been some good results since.

“We’ve got two candidates who’ve really put their hands up and made life very difficult because if it hadn’t had been we’d have made our decision much earlier.

“You don’t want to rush into things and then regret the decision you’ve made.

The decision has been made, but we want to go away and make sure we haven’t left anything out that we’re going to regret.”

While the captaincy issue has dominated much of the Ashes debate, choosing the squad has also troubled the selectors.

“It’s a difficult squad to pick because the expectations to retain the Ashes are very high,” added Fletcher.

“After winning them last summer the expectations are high, and quite rightly so, and we’ve got to make sure we get everything right for this winter.”