Andrew Flintoff’s latest injury setback has revived the debate about how England can best balance their side in the absence of a genuine allrounder. When Flintoff was fit, they could play five frontline bowlers and not jeopardise the strength of the batting. Without him, they have either tested out a deputy (Rikki Clarke was tried for two Tests in 2003 when Flintoff was side-lined with a groin strain) or relied on just four bowlers.

With Clarke, 25, still inconsistent with the ball, the next time we see a credible new England allrounder could be when Adil Rashid, the 19-year-old spin bowler and batsman from Yorkshire, makes the step up to Test cricket. There is not another fast-bowling allrounder in the country worth a name-check after Flintoff.

Perhaps if Matt Prior’s batting continues to develop he might be played as a sixth batsmen to accommodate five specialist bowlers, but that seems the least likely option. Against a team as weak as West Indies, whom England meet in the third npower Test at Old Trafford on Thursday, four bowlers ought to be sufficient to deliver Michael Vaughan a record 21st Test win as England captain, but when the opposition is sterner, as it will be later in the summer against India, they would prefer an attack of greater depth.

Whether Flintoff, who underwent a third operation on his left foot on Friday, will be fully fit by then, or capable of bowling as he once did, is unclear. He may never be the potent force of old, so expectations about what the future holds should not be high. This leaves the onus on the four principal bowlers to perform even when he returns.

England managed with a four-man attack against Pakistan last summer when Flintoff was recovering from his second operation, as they have in this West Indies series so far. It didn’t handicap them last week in Leeds, where they won inside the equivalent of seven sessions, but at Lord’s in the first Test they found life harder after one of the quartet, Matthew Hoggard, broke down.

The danger of being left with only three frontline bowlers should an injury strike was the reason Duncan Fletcher opted for five-man attacks. Before the Pakistan series, England had fielded four-man attacks in only three Tests dating back to May 2002 and each of those was precipitated by an injury crisis.

Fletcher’s caution may have been understandable but, historically, England have been harder to beat when playing six batsmen and four bowlers rather than five of each. Australia have long favoured four bowlers, but they did not have a decent allrounder and they did have Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. When he has had five bowlers at his disposal, Vaughan has often left one underemployed.

Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar, the only two ever-presents in England’s four-man attacks of the past six home Tests, will not lack confidence at Old Trafford, where last year they demolished Pakistan in three days. How keen Ryan Sidebottom, the unexpected hero in Leeds, will be to return to Manchester is another matter. He has an awful record at Old Trafford and that must have a bearing on his confidence – one wicket, at a cost of 293 runs, in 10 appearances for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.

If the horses-for-courses argument applied over Sidebottom’s selection for Leeds was brought to bear again, then James Ander-son, a certainty for this morning’s 12-man squad given Hoggard’s continued absence with a groin strain, would be chosen ahead of him on his home ground. He surely would have more belief that he might do well. There is next to no chance of that happening, so Sidebottom must pray the ball swings as it did on the other side of the Pen-nines. England should thus field an unchanged XI unless Ian Bell’s back problem flares again, in which case either Owais Shah will be given another game or Ravi Bopara could be brought in for a first Test cap.

Flintoff’s absence has another consequence. It puts the stage firmly at the disposal of Kevin Pietersen. At 26, Pietersen is several years away from the typical peak of a top-flight batsman – usually the top side of 30 – but, astonishingly, less than two years since making his Test debut, he is already closing on the summit of his profession.

His double-century in Leeds brought him to within 27 points of Ricky Ponting at the head of the ICC’s Test rankings, a gap he could wipe out over the next few weeks, especially given the weak nature of the West Indies bowling, against which his past five scores, in all internationals, are 90 not out, 100, 26, 109 and 226. He tops the one-day rankings and if, come September 1, he holds pole position in both arenas he will be only the fourth batsman since 1985 to have done so at such a stage of the year, after Viv Richards (1986), Brian Lara (1994 and 1995) and Sachin Tendulkar (2002).

Given the state of the West Indies and India attacks, and the anodyne nature of so many Test pitches, it is not hard to envisage Pietersen raising his tally of Test runs for the summer, which currently stands at 361, beyond 1,000. No wonder global sponsors not usually identified with cricket are rushing to his door.

West Indies do not look so stable. Now led by Daren Ganga for the first time, they will do well to take the match into a fifth day. The Test in Leeds finished so quickly partly because Shivnar-ine Chanderpaul missed the game with knee trouble and Ramnaresh Sarwan’s shoulder injury left them batting with only 10 men, but even if Chanderpaul returns it is hard to see how such an inexperienced batting lineup can muster enough runs.

Such is their plight, they must be tempted to throw Marlon Sam-uels straight into the fray. They are also expected to add fire-power to the bowling by summoning the pace of Fidel Edwards, perhaps at the expense of Jerome Taylor.

England squad

Probable England squad: A Strauss, A Cook, M Vaughan (capt), K Pietersen, P Collingwood, I Bell, M Prior, L Plunkett, S Harmison, A Sidebottom, M Panesar, J Anderson