England may review their decision to terminate Andrew Flintoff's tour in the aftermath of his breathtaking innings to seal their historic one-day international victory in Karachi.

The Lancashire all-rounder is due to fly home for further specialist advice on his long-standing back problem having failed to prove his fitness to bowl in the one-day series, which was a condition of his participation in the three Tests which follow.

The clamour for his retention in the squad as a specialist batsman has grown, however, following his controlled but explosive 84 which enabled England to successfully chase the fourth biggest total in one-day international history to go 1-0 ahead in the three-match series.

It is a situation England had already considered a week ago when they announced Flintoff's early departure and replaced him with Surrey's Alex Tudor for the first-class section of the tour.

The management have still not ruled out the possibility of either reversing the decision or recalling him if another batsman gets injured.

''We thought this might happen when we made the decision, we knew this situation could arise,'' admitted coach Duncan Fletcher. ''We thought at the time we needed an all-rounder as back-up in case Dominic Cork or Craig White went down, which would have left us with a huge gap in the side.

''We thought about keeping him on as a batsman, but we had to make some sort of a decision a week ago in order to get the balance of the squad right.

''At the moment he's going home, but he will be one of the players we will consider as a stand-by batsman if we had a problem he would be one of two or three players we would look at.''

That, at least, is some consolation for Flintoff just as he seems to have begun his development into an international-class player with his most composed innings since marking his one-day debut with a half-century against Pakistan in Sharjah 18 months ago.

''It's disappointing to be going home, but I always knew that if my back wasn't right I would be going home after the one-day series,'' he said. ''In the past we've always looked for quick fixes with my back, but the time has come to go home, see the specialists and seek a long-term solution.

''I was really pleased with the way I played the other night because I didn't just go out and try and bludgeon the ball, but just tried to play straight and work the ball around.

''It's something I've been working on recently. When we played South Africa in Nairobi I got very frustrated because they bowled very straight at me and gave me nothing to hit so I've been working in the nets at pushing the ball around, trying to score at a run a ball and then punish the loose deliveries.''

As England's most charismatic young player, Flintoff has become used to the attention over the past couple of years and Fletcher understands the public acclaim for this developing talent to remain part of the tour party.

''The difficult thing is that if he has one bad innings people say he should be out of the side and if he has one good innings, he's a world-beater," he revealed.

Flintoff's innings was not the only bonus for Fletcher during England's opening victory with captain Nasser Hussain, Graeme Hick and Graham Thorpe all contributing valuable half-centuries to eclipse Pakistan's formidable 304 for nine with 17 balls remaining.

''Every tour you want to start well because to pull it back you have to have some very strong characters in the side,'' claimed Fletcher. ''It's the most satisfying win I've been involved with."