Star England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has joined the growing list of Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni’s admirers.

Freddie said the wicketkeeper batsman is a very impressive leader both on and off the field.

Flintoff played under Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing Indian Premier League before a knee injury forced him out of action.

But the Englishman, the costliest player on the Twenty20 event’s roster along with teammate Kevin Pietersen, said he was mighty impressed with what he saw of Dhoni’s captaincy during his short stint with Chennai.

“Dhoni is very impressive both on and off the field. He is a very cool-headed guy,” Flintoff told PTI.

The talismanic all-rounder said injury might have cut short his IPL sojourn this time around but he was looking forward to be back next year.

“It is great to play in the presence of great players like (Australian) Matthew Hayden. I am looking forward to coming back next year,” he said.

Earlier, Hayden had also praised Dhoni’s captaincy.

“MS is a fantastic captain and player. MS gets some great power from unorthodox shots. He is a danger in this form, danger in any format really. When he is going he just strikes the ball as hard as anyone on the planet. And these small boundaries … He is just unstoppable,” Hayden had said.

India beat England to win take an unassailabel 4-0 lead in the seven match ODI series. What a moment for MS Dhoni and his boys.

India win by 19 runs

India have wrapped off the series with, taking an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven match ODI series. This has been a sensational performance by the hosts.

England recover to set decent total

England were in danger of rolling out cheaply but some lower order resistance helped the visitors set India 241 to win.

England 240 all out

Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell and Owais Shah contributed substantially to help England set India a challenging total to win the third ODI in Kanpur. However, given the way the wicket has shaped up and the kind of form India’s batsmen are in, the task would not be too daunting for MS Dhoni’s men.

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Teams

India: Virender Sehwag, G Gambhir, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, RG Sharma, YK Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, I Sharma, MM Patel

England: IR Bell, MJ Prior (wk), OA Shah, KP Pietersen (capt), A Flintoff, PD Collingwood, SR Patel, RS Bopara, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson

The match, reduced to 49-overs-a-side will start at 9.45 am.