Flintoff says Oz batsman 'aren't up to the task' of winning summer Ashes

Former England skipper Andrew Flintoff has said that he believed that the Australian batsmen are not up to the task of taking away the Ashes urn from England this summer given that they are 2-0 down in to the series.

According to The Sun, Flintoff was surprised at the dismal condition of the side, who failed to step up to the mark even though their coach Darren Lehmann work hard to arrest the slide and brought in legends like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Steve Waugh to speak to the players.

However, Flintoff felt that the young side may have felt inadequate instead of tapping into the wealth of knowledge offered by the legends and wondered why no one in Australia thought about the future and such an event happening a decade back when Waugh, Warne and McGrath were invincible.

Stating that the current crop of Australian batsmen are not up to the task of winning the series, Flintoff said that Australia has not used the advantages of their batsmen's abilities to their best like England, adding that County Championship should be praised for producing a good batch of players like Sheffield Shield did in the past in Australia.

According to Flintoff, the 18 counties always plan ahead and produce a high standard of cricket from youngsters like Joe Root when they break through, adding that it is important for players, especially batsmen, to adapt to that fact, which has been failed by Australian batsmen.

However, the retired cricketer has refused to blame Shane Watson for wasting TV referrals on plumb LBWs, saying that if he manages to get the technical glitch corrected, he could yet impact the series as he is a batsman who plays great attacking shots, although he added that a batsman needed to be positive both in attack and in defence.

However, he said that he can understand the position Australian captain Michael Clarke is in, saying that he had been in a similar position of knowing that there is a big gulf between the two sides as he had been England captain when the Australians beat England 5-0 back in 2006-07, at a time when Australia was at the pinnacle of success.