India's predicted playing XI for the 3rd T20I against England

The Men in Blue had started their long and difficult tour of England on a bright note but they faltered in the 2nd T20I. The series is tied at 1-1, which makes the last match all the more exciting. If it was India which bowled well in the first encounter, it was England’s turn in the 2nd match. The first match was sealed courtesy a 5 wicket haul from Kuldeep Yadav and a century from KL Rahul.

England won the 2nd match by 5 wickets and leveled the series. It was a great team effort from the England bowlers, with David Willey and Liam Plunkett being the pick of the bowlers. They were miserly as they ended up with figures of 1/18 and 1/17 respectively. Alex Hales won the man of the match award for his excellent 41 balls 58 which carried England to victory.

India and England are pretty much evenly matched teams with England having a slightly better batting unit whereas, India has the edge over England when it comes to the bowling attack. The series decider promises to be an exciting match. Here's a look at India's probable playing XI for the match against England.

Openers- Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma has been rather patchy against England so far. He scored an uncharacteristic 30 ball 32 and could only manage 6 runs in 9 deliveries in the 2nd game. He has been poor with his batting and he will have to do a lot more to justify his place in a team filled with batting superstars. He has scored 1987 runs in 76 innings at a strike rate of 136. He will look to deliver a classic Hitman performance in the last match of the T20I series.

Shikhar Dhawan has been in the form of his life over the duration of the last 6-7 months having plundered runs. He had a bumper season in this year's IPL and scored 74 against Ireland. One can expect Gabbar to come back to form in the last game. He has scored 972 runs in 39 T20I's at a strike rate of 130. Hopefully, Rohit and Shikhar can deliver a memorable opening stand against England in the 3rd T20I.

Middle Order- KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina

KL Rahul scored a hundred

KL Rahul started the series with a bang as he scored a century but he couldn't replicate his heroics in the 2nd match as was dismissed for only 6 runs. The Karnataka batsman was dismissed due to a false shot and will look to make up for that with a good performance in the 3rd and final encounter. He has scored 677 runs in 16 innings at a belligerent strike rate of 152. He will look to demolish the English bowlers come on the 8th of July.

Virat Kohli hasn't been at his very best during the T20I's against Ireland and England. He couldn't do a lot against Ireland, largely due to the fact that he didn't get a lot of balls to face. In the first match he played second fiddle to KL Rahul with a 22 ball 20 and in the second match, his 47 runs came at a poor strike rate of 123. King Kohli has scored 2059 runs in 57 innings at a strike rate of 136.

Suresh Raina has had a pretty fruitful tour of England and Ireland so far, having stitched together a couple of good performances. He scored 69 runs against Ireland in the 2nd match and a solid 20 ball 27 against England in the 2nd game. The CSK batsman has scored 1605 runs in 66 innings at a good strike rate of 135. He will look to deliver a good performance as it could help him cement his spot.

MS Dhoni (WK) and Hardik Pandya

MSD and Hardik Pandya

MS Dhoni didn't get a chance to bat in the first match due to KL Rahul's brilliant knock. However, he got a chance to bat in the second match and helped in bailing India out of a difficult situation. He scored 32 runs in 24 balls and helped India post a respectable score of 148. He has scored 1487 runs in 80 innings at a strike rate of 127.

Hardik Pandya is unarguably one of the best all rounders that India has produced over the past 3-4 decades. The Gujarat born lad has the ability to get going from ball no. one and is a very useful bowler. He has scored 238 runs in 21 innings at a strike rate of 146 and has picked up 29 wickets in 34 matches while conceding runs at 7.94 per over. He will look to deliver an all round performance against England and help India win the series.

Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Yuzvendra Chahal

Krunal Pandya could be handed a debut against England in the third T20I. Although India hasn't won the series yet, they would be tempted to test out the elder Pandya. He is a very handy batsman and can reduce the burden of finishing an inning from the shoulders of Hardik and MSD. The left arm spinner is a wicket taker and is an excellent fielder. He has scored 967 runs in 50 T20 innings and picked up 59 wickets in 61 matches at an economy rate of 6.96.

Yuzvendra Chahal is one of the best spinners in India at present and has proved it time and again. The RCB player has been sensational for India over the last year and half. The leggie has picked up 42 wickets in 25 matches at an economy rate of 7.86 and has career best figures of 6/25. The 6 wickets came against England in 2017 and Kohli will want to see similar performance in the series decider.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar will need to deliver a strong performance in the decider as the pressure is mounting on him to perform well. He has had a rough time since the beginning of this year's IPL and if he fails to perform in the next few games, he could face the axe. The swing king has picked up 29 wickets in 29 matches at an economy rate of 6.75.

Umesh Yadav has had a bumper year in stark contrast to Bhuvneshwar Kumar's year. He was one of the leading wicket takers in this year's IPL and was instrumental for them. Thanks to this year's IPL, Yadav has come back into the Indian limited overs team after he was ousted from the team last year. Surprisingly, he has played only 4 T20I's and picked up 7 wickets at an economy rate of 7.69.