Flintoff was short of runs in India

Flintoff bounced back from a first innings duck to score a century from 114 balls in a match been dominated by bowlers.

And who else would have had the power, let alone the ability, to hit 23 fours and three sixes in a 167-ball innings, most of them from booming drives off both seam and spin?

Whether he likes it or not, Flintoff has officially assumed the highest all-rounder status in English cricket, otherwise known as "The Next Ian Botham".

Botham was playing only his fourth Test match when he scored that century, however, and proceeded to score two more in his next four.

To judge Flintoff properly, therefore, we must be patient.

How often will the Lancastrian be allowed to free his arms by drilling three consecutive Ian Butler half-volleys to the boundary, followed shortly after by three successive cuts, as he was early in his innings?

Botham is one of the all-time greats

And how would he have played had Graham Thorpe not been there throughout, matching his partner boundary for boundary in a record sixth-wicket partnership of 281?

There were no histrionics when Thorpe reached his 10th Test hundred, merely a wave of the bat to his team-mates and the crowd, followed by a punch of the gloves with Flintoff and a message to his partner to follow suit.

When he did, Flintoff emulated Thorpe by closing his eyes in reflection, an acknowledgement that in 12 Tests to date he had let himself down badly with an average of less than 14.

For now, however, Flintoff can bask in the glory of the sort of innings that could have passed for any one of Botham's 14 Test centuries - and was watched by the latter from the TV commentary box.

It was a one-sided affair, all but one of the nine fours he blasted in posting 50 from 49 balls coming on the off-side.

But it was all the more impressive for the way it revelled in his strengths. There was no sign of rigid defence and precious little poor shot selection, the two batting curses in his career so far

Flintoff's bowling has come on in leaps and bounds

Though he slowed slightly as he approached his century, he became even better at putting away the bad ball, scoring a further 10 fours and two sixes between fifty and a hundred.

And once past his century, he revelled in mocking Craig McMillan's unprepossessing medium pace by twice pulling him to the mid-wicket boundary.

McMillan had spent the previous five minutes attempting to sledge Flintoff into making an error of judgement.

The true genius of Botham was, of course, to take centre stage in whatever he did.

In that match in 1978, as well as a hatful of catches he became the second England player after Tony Greig to score a century and take five wickets in an innings.

Wisden concluded: "In everything he did, Botham was inspiring."

Flintoff clearly has a long, long way to go, but at last the journey is under way.