CRICKET/ASHES SERIES SECOND TEST: ANDREW FLINTOFF has set his sights on becoming the best one-day player in the world and competing in the 2015 World Cup after he confirmed yesterday he would retire from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes.

Flintoff, who was given three cortisone injections to his right knee on Monday after twisting it during the Cardiff Test, was hopeful of taking part in today’s second Test at Lord’s after coming through a fitness test yesterday morning. His optimism was cautiously backed up by the England captain, Andrew Strauss, who declared: “At this stage we’re hopeful but can’t be certain.”

A crippling list of injuries, including four ankle operations and recent surgery on his knee, has persuaded Flintoff –- who has missed 62 Tests out of 138 since his debut – to focus on one-day cricket instead, although his desire to play until 2015 would take him to the age of 37.

“It’s been on my mind for quite a while,” he said. “My body’s telling me things and I’m starting to listen. I can’t keep playing a game here and there and waiting until I’m fit – for the sake of my own sanity and my family having to live with me, going through two years of rehab in the past four has not been ideal.

“You have your first ankle operation, then your next and your next and it gets harder and harder. But we’ve got a World Cup coming up in 2011 and I’d like to play another World Cup after that as well. There’s a lot of cricket left in me and I want to be the best in the world in that form of the game.”

The timing of Flintoff’s announcement – on the eve of the biggest fixture in England’s calendar – led to speculation that Lord’s could be his 77th and final Test cap, but Flintoff said one last hurrah in the fifth Ashes Test at The Oval “would be a perfect end”.

He refused to rule out having more injections on the knee that swelled up after Cardiff, saying: “I’ll do anything to play in these next four Tests.”

What happens beyond this summer is unclear. Flintoff is contracted to Lancashire until the end of the 2010 season – although he suggested he would be unlikely to play regular championship cricket – and is scheduled to represent Chennai Super Kings in next year’s Indian Premier League, where a full six-week stint would net him $1.55 million.

In the immediate term, Flintoff’s presence will simplify a selection process that would have become a puzzler. Lord’s pitches of late have shown more pace and carry than in recent years, a tendency to get better for batting, rather than worse as the match progresses.

Given the lack of prospect for spinners, there is little chance that Monty Panesar, an unlikely batting hero in Cardiff, will retain his place, making way instead for a seamer. Whether this is Graham Onions, the country’s leading wicket-taker, who got on the bowling honours board here in May, or Steve Harmison, remains to be seen.

Onions is a bowler on top of his game, reliable, with a technique that gets him in close to the stumps, and a natural length that allows him to swing the ball. His bowling to Phil Hughes in Worcester should not be underestimated; by bottling him up he contributed hugely to Harmison’s success against him.

Harmison, on the other hand, at his best, a state he appears to be in at present, is a nasty fast into-the-ribs bowler, his presence at Lord’s almost certainly pencilled in when the Cardiff squad was announced with this specific pitch in mind. Onions may win the day but it would be a close call.

Both could play, however, for the expectation heaped on Stuart Broad at present outstrips his achievement. If it was a mistake at Cardiff to have him opening the bowling rather than Flintoff, then it was compounded by his wayward line. Restoring both Harmison and Onions to the side would lend the strongest cutting edge to the attack.

The Australians may also consider a spinner superfluous, and restore the metronomic Stuart Clark to the pace attack, and rely on Michael Clarke, Marcus North and Simon Katich for any spin.

In Cardiff, England were, with fleeting interludes only, comprehensively outplayed. They may be capable of more of the same, and there is considerable room for improvement within the pace attack. England may take the view that they have absorbed the best that can be offered and now is the time for a riposte.