Fragile Vaughan

Michael Vaughan's injury nightmare continues with a fresh injury, a broken finger, which could put him out of action for the first Test and even the second at his home ground at Headingley. He has shown good form at the beginning of the season and at the back end of the World Cup, but this is another blow for the injury prone England captain.

Vaughan needed a good start to the season and have a run of good form to establish his place back into the side. It raises fears of whether he can ever do that again, with his heavily operated knees always likely to let him down. Ever since his return to the side, he has seemed susceptible to picking up an injury simply by chasing a ball to the boundary or running hard between the wickets. He was struggling in his one long innings at the crease against the West Indies in England's final match at the World Cup and that was evidence that he is far from being match fit.

It poses a problem that England have had many times in the recent 18 months of who should captain the side. My vote would go to Andrew Strauss as he impressed me when he led the side well against Pakistan last summer and his batting didn't crumble under the added responsibility. The same cannot be said for Andrew Flintoff, who needs to work on his whole game and aim to reach the form he produced in the classic 2005 Ashes series, without the burden of captaincy. The odds should be on Strauss this time after Flintoff was stripped off the vice captaincy for his drinking exploits in the Caribbean.