MELBOURNE, Oct 8 Crowd favourite Andrew Flintoff is set to move up the Rest of the World cricket batting order after impressing in opening two games against Australia. The burly Lancastrian has struggled with the ball in two comprehensive defeats but contributed typically fluent innings of 38 and 42.

“Fred has played so superbly well, maybe next game we’ll look to promote him,” skipper Shaun Pollock said. “He is scoring at a run a ball and form is the key, we have to use form guys.”

The all-star Rest of the World XI has twice been bowled out cheaply at Telstra Dome.

Middle-order maestros Jacques Kallis and Brian Lara have contributed a mere 24 runs between them in two matches.

Pollock insisted: “Jacques is not normally out of form, he is someone you can usually really depend on. I am sure it will not be long before he snaps back into gear.

“Class players like him and Brian, it is just a matter of two or three good shots and they are right back in there, really dangerous.”

Pollock, hoping to avoid a whitewash in final match of one-day series, is keen to head into six-day Test match in a more positive vein, but admits timing of matches has not been ideal.

“I am not looking to be critical but a lot of the guys have come off off-seasons, if we had caught them at end of their seasons they would have been in better nick and able to perform better,” he said.—Agencies