ANDY Flintoff has been handed a shock call-up to England's tour of India.

And the big Lancashire all-rounder could find himself opening the bowling in the first Test in Chandigarh the week after next.

England sent an SOS to Flintoff after Yorkshire's Craig White suffered a reaction to his back problems in the opening tour game in Bombay.

So Freddie was today flying from Adelaide, where he has been training at the new England cricket academy, to link up with the squad in Hyderabad -- with every chance of going straight into action in the three-day warm-up game which starts on Thursday, jet-lag permitting.

It's a long-overdue change of luck for Flintoff, and the chance to finally establish himself on the international stage.

He had an impressive short tour of Zimbabwe with England's one-day squad in September, but missed out on selection for the India trip after failing to impress England coach Duncan Fletcher in the previous two years.

But now he will join new Lancashire skipper Warren Hegg, who is hoping for his first game of the tour in Hyderabad, with the chance to establish himself as the all-rounder England desperately need in India.

They are expected to go into the Tests on the spinning Indian pitches with only two seamers, which could mean Flintoff sharing the new ball with James Ormond or Matthew Hoggard.

And if he does well enough in India, the 23-year-old will earn himself a place on the second half of England's winter tour, in New Zealand after Christmas.

Flintoff has nine Test caps but has only managed 233 runs at an average of 16, and seven wickets at 55. But as everyone at Old Trafford knows, he has the ability to do so much better. This is his big chance.