England will go into the Commonwealth Bank Series match against Australia in Brisbane tomorrow just as they began the first Ashes Test at the same venue seven weeks ago. Andrew Flintoff is in charge, with Michael Vaughan, who is recovering from a hamstring injury and is unsure when he will return, in the shadows.

When it came to the crunch yesterday, the selectors were not strong enough to rule out Flintoff as Vaughan’s stand-in and the player — more understandably — could not bring himself to reject what may have been his one and only opportunity to show that the 5-0 whitewash was no reflection of his captaincy.

England wanted Flintoff to accept that the burden of leadership was too great at a time when he is the best batsman and leading bowler in an inexperienced one-day team. That he took from afternoon until evening to make a decision showed that he had doubts.

Appointing Andrew Strauss until Vaughan is over his latest injury — which may take three weeks — would have dented Flintoff’s pride. But it was probably the right decision for Flintoff, as well as the team. Someone should have been strong enough to make it.

If ever David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, and Duncan Fletcher, the coach, wanted convincing that Flintoff is best unshackled from extra responsibility, they had only to think back 24 hours to his matchwinning all-round performance against New Zealand in Hobart. Vaughan also had an input into the decision.

“Whether captaincy affects my game is brought up time and time again,” Flintoff said. “I had to get it straight in my own mind. I asked myself whether I thought I would be doing too much, but having made the decision, I am comfortable. Once I got my head around it, the pros of captaining England outweighed the cons.

“I am proud of captaining my country. It is a big job with a young side. There is a lot more going on in one-day cricket. As a captain you are doing much more. I thought things through with Duncan. I have found a bit of form on the field, so that part of the game I am happier with than I have been.”

However, at a swiftly arranged press conference last night, Flintoff conveyed more in five seconds of silence when asked how he would have felt had Strauss been offered the job than in several minutes of speech. He ended the lengthy pause by saying: “The selectors make the decision. That is out of my control. If it had gone to Andrew Strauss, I would have given him all the support I could on and off the field and just got on with it.”

So far, Vaughan has not been ruled out beyond the match against Australia and will be reassessed over the next 24 hours. He is in a Catch-22, desperate to play to prove that he is able to manage his long-term knee trouble but aware that hamstring injuries can be exacerbated by returning too soon.

To add to the confusion yesterday, England sent for Mal Loye, the Lancashire batsman, who has been playing for Auckland. When he arrived at the team hotel to be greeted in the foyer by Phil Neale, the team operations manager, he cannot have known the identity of his captain.

Loye, 34, was named in the initial 30 for the World Cup last week and would make a straight replacement for Vaughan, opening alongside Strauss, but is a more aggressive type of batsman. Two days previously, Fletcher said that England would not bring in a hitter for the sake of it. Loye, uncapped, is not far short of that bill. He toured with England A as far back as 1993-94 and almost made a Test debut against Sri Lanka at the end of the 1998 season when he was named the Professional Cricketers’ Association Player of the Year. He has vast experience — 263 one-day matches — but, like Paul Nixon, must have felt that his chance had gone.

Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee trained yesterday, having missed the previous match, against New Zealand, because of injury and illness respectively. Adam Gilchrist is the Australia captain in the absence of the rested Ricky Ponting.

Captain's log

Not as captain: Two one-day internationals, 47 not out and 72 not out; 0 for 48 and 2 for 37