Andrew Flintoff has said that he has seen very few players in his career who can hit the cricket ball harder than Jos Buttler.

Buttler used to play for the Somerset County Cricket Club until the last season, but, this season, he has taken a transfer to Flintoff’s club Lancashire and he has started making impact at Old Trafford straightaway. He has won the club a couple of games with his thundering stroke play.

Buttler has already become a certainty for the Three Lions in 50-over cricket and he is very close to making it to the England test squad as well. He was on the stand-by ahead of the Trent Bridge test match against India. If Matt Prior had not been able to pass the fitness test on the morning of that match, Buttler would have made his test debut there.

Talking about the young wicketkeeper batsman yesterday, Flintoff said, “Jos is phenomenal as far as playing the big hits is concerned. I’ve seen quite a few belligerent hitters over the years and he is as good as any one of them if not better.”

“The thing which impresses me about Jos is that despite having tasted success at a young age, he doesn’t take things for granted. He never misses practice sessions. He is at it all the time. He’s a keen learner.”

When asked if he reckons Buttler can be a good test match wicketkeeper batsman for England, Freddie said, “Yes, off course. Having watched him bat in quite a few innings this season, I do believe that he can succeed at the test level as well.”

Flintoff has recently made a comeback in competitive cricket after being out for a few years. Just a couple of days back, he featured for Lancashire in a match of the Natwest T20 Blast competition.