India vs England: Combined best XI of the T20I series

The T20I series between India and England was hyped up as one of the biggest series of the year and it was for good reason as it was the top two T20I teams in the world. Given that the T20 World Cup will be hosted in India, this was going to be a crucial series for both teams to test out some players and settle on their best possible combinations.

It was a cracking affair as many had predicted it to be and we had to wait till the very last game to find out the team that would emerge victorious over the 5 game series. England won the first and third games, while India won the second, fourth, and fifth games in the 5-game series. Indian skipper, Virat Kohli was the Player of the Series for his outstanding performances with the bat.

Despite the series defeat, England retained their place as the world’s No.1 T20I team in the ICC rankings. We saw some terrific performances from both the teams, and it was expected given the quality of players in both the squads.

On that note, here’s a look at the combined XI of the T20I series from both teams

1. Jason Roy

Jason Roy’s place was the most vulnerable in England’s batting lineup given that he didn’t have a great series against Australia and even Alex Hales was playing quite well in the Big Bash. Furthermore, he went unsold in the IPL Auction, and thus, he had a point to prove and he didn’t do badly in the series.

He scored 144 runs in 5 matches at an average of nearly 29 while scoring at 132.11 per 100 balls on average. In his career, he has played 43 T20Is and scored 1034 runs. His strike rate of 142.22 is among the best, but he would want to improve on his average of 24.04 as he is a much better batsman than that.

Roy scored 40 or more runs in three of the 5 games, showing that he was fairly consistent. He was unlucky to not score a fifty even once, and his highest score of 49 came in the first game of the series. Although Dawid Malan scored four more runs than him, Roy edges him because of greater consistency and higher strike rate.