No Freddie, no X-Factor

And on day two yesterday the England captain would have given anything to be able to turn to his absent all-rounder to bowl England back into contention.

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Just to reinforce the point, India's livewire wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lost no opportunity to whisper in Vaughan's ear while he was at the crease: "It's not so easy without Freddie, is it?"

It is not that England's bowlers performed badly yesterday: they did almost all that could be asked of them.

James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom maintained commendable consistency, admirable aggression and, at times, high-class swing at always troubling pace. Chris Tremlett extracted bounce and Monty Panesar enough turn to keep the batsmen honest.

With the luck to which they were undoubtedly entitled, and just a smigdeon more of the sympathy they deserved from umpire Ian Howell, their four-man attack might have wrought significant damage on India's worldclass middle order.

But they didn't. India ended the day on 254-3 with a potentially priceless lead of 56,Tendulkar ominously poised on 57 not out and a huge opportunity to secure a win that could settle the series.

And that is why, when England resume their task of keeping India's lead within manageable proportions this morning, their supporters will have one ear glued to what is happening at Liverpool Cricket Club, where Flintoff begins his latest, raindelayed comeback for Lancashire against Sri Lanka A.

As they weigh up all options for the final test at The Oval in 11 days' time, England's selectors will of course also be waiting on news of the possible recovery estimate for Matthew Hoggard.

But, as Dhoni's wind-up indicates, India know as well as their hosts that the man England are missing most is the one who, at the peak of his powers, made the team tick.

They miss Flintoff for his batting at No 6 that enabled them to field five front-line bowlers, not four, and they miss him for the bowling that, in 2005, made Ricky Ponting look clueless, not to mention his bucketh and catches at slip — in short, the bloke who Dhoni recalls scoring 264 runs at 52.8 and 11 wickets against them last year in India.

But they miss him most for the knack he had of just making something happen: the ability to turn a game in an instant that earned him the status of dressing-room talisman and national hero everywhere else.

Today in Liverpool and maybe all week if his ankle enables him to play in Lancashire's county match with Sussex, then pitch up for Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston on Saturday, Flintoff will start the process of fulfilling his promise that "my best years are still to come".

For the simple truth facing Vaughan today is that the return of Flintoff cannot come soon enough.

Try as they might and laudably as they performed yesterday in attempting to defend an indefensible 198 all out, England could not find the spark to wrest the momentum from opponents determined to make the most of their weather-assisted escape at Lord's.

Anderson swung the ball almost as much as he did so devastatingly at Lord's, though perhaps not quite so late. He will have lost count of the times he beat the outside edge of Indian openers Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik as they chiselled their way to the first century opening stand by an Indian pair in England since 1979.

And he produced a beast that smashed into Sachin Tendulkar's grille to genuinely, if only momentarily, discombobulate the little master on his way to joining Brian Lara and Allan Border as the scorer of 11,000 Test runs.

Sidebottom, on the ground he now calls home,kept probing.

Tremlett produced the ball of the day to have Jaffer caught behind at 147-1.

Panesar justified the benefit of the slight doubt over his dismissal of Karthik, caught at shot leg by Alastair Cook from the first ball after tea at 149-2,having already had two excellent lbw appeals turned down in successive overs by Howell.

And later, the way the spinner tempted Rahul Dravid on 37 into driving a catch to Ian Bell was pure class.

But by then Dravid and Tendulkar had taken India well beyond England's paltry first-innings total, and the best Vaughan appeared to have up his sleeve were defensive bowling lines and restrictive field placings.

"Not so easy without Freddie?"

On yesterday's evidence Vaughan would have no option but to concur.

Those words may turn out to be the sledge of the summer.