his england place but he remodelled his bowling action and gained a place on the 200102 india tour he flopped with the bat during the tests but the odi series proved to be a turninng point in his careerentrusted with bowling the final over with india needing 11 to win he ran out anil kumble and bowled javagal srinath with successive balls to win the match and took off his shirt in celebration his was repeated by former india skipper sourav ganguly at lords during the natwest seriesin 2002 he also scored his maiden test century but by the end of the year averaged just 19 with the bat and 47 with the ballin the summer of 2003 flintoff scored a century and three fifties in the fivetest series against south africa at home and continued to excel on the tour of the west indies in march and april 2004 and was named as a wisden cricketer of the yearalthough injury prevented him from bowling he was called into the england squad as a specialist batsman for the 2004 natwest odi series against new zealand and the west indies and he responded by scoring two consecutive centuries in the series and hitting seven sixes in one inningsin february 2006 flintoff was named captain of the england team for the first test match against india his contributions with both bat and ball ensured that he was named as the player of the seriesflintoff continued to captain england during the seven odis in india although he was rested for two matches but a recurrence of his longterm ankle problem in may 2006 forced him to miss both the odi series against sri lanka and the first test against pakistanhe was thus ruled out for the entire series against pakistan after it was learnt that flintoffs rehabiltation had not been sufficient to quell the injury and that further surgery would be requireddespite injury concerns flintoff was later named for the icc champions trophy where he played as a specialist batsman not as an allrounderthe zenith of flintoffs career was the 2005 ashes in which he starred with bat and ball to topple the australians and win back the urn after an 18year hiatus flintoff returned as captain of the england team for the 200607 ashes series in australia but it turned out to be a humiliating one as his side suffered five straight losses and thus lost the ashesflintoff was also no stranger to controversies and was once involved in an incident with water and a pedaloafter englands loss to new zealand in the 2007 world cup flintoff fell off a pedalo and got into difficulties in the water early on saturday morning following a drinking session he was soon sacked as england vicecaptain and banned for the canada world cup gamein february 2009 the chennai super kings of the indian premier league bought flintoff for 1550000 making him the highesteverpaid ipl player alongside compatriot kevin pietersenhowever flintoff did not find success at