India is the favourite to walk out as the winner of the T-20 series

What a start it’s been to India’s tour of England. Amidst all the noise, the Cup is coming back home.

The two top sides have managed to steal the show in the first two T-20s.

India surprised England and to be brutally honest, everyone, with how their dominance could overcome the audacity of this English team as Kuldeep Yadav with his five wickets turned the game on its head and KL Rahul started from where he left in this year’s IPL to score his second T-20 ton for India.

It was Alex Hales in particular who was the most heavily criticized as eight runs off 18 balls in a T-20 is a crime if you don’t make up for it.

Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan all bowed down to the wrong’un of Yadav as Yuzevendra Chhal tightened the grips at another end.

In the second ODI, England turned up as a better side, as they seemed to have unlocked the mystery of wrist spinners when Bairstow hit two successive six off Kuldeep.

Alex Hales took the game to the very end as England won by five wickets.

With Ben Stokes fit for the third T-20, England is expected to be much stronger of the two team and looks like will go on to become the winner of T-20 international.

With Ben Stokes fit, England will need to drop their one top-order batsman so who do they replace with?

Jonny Bairstow? He smacked those two sixes out of the ground to give Hales the breathing space at other end and make victory possible for England. Or is it Joe Root?

Root perhaps hasn’t played as he would have liked to in last five international innings but is this limited sample enough to throw out England’s prolific batsman? Surely not. It was a good move to send Root up the order as he can rotate the strike and punish odd loose balls.

In fact, when you are chasing a score of 140-150, a player such as Root acts as glue for the batting line-up and his role becomes crucial as he needs to mix attack and defence as per the different situation.

Whoever moves out to accommodate Stokes means you miss out on the experience of a player who has seen and faced India’s two x-factors. Similarly, Stokes could take some time to know what the mystery spin is over just watching a recording or hearing from others.

Meanwhile, for India in last year or so, it’s been sporadic that two wrist spinners have had two bad matches on the trot. Virat Kohli is due for a big one and knowing this big match player he could turn the table on England tomorrow. Umesh Yadav has found the rhythm and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, despite giving away 12 runs in last over, had a better outing than his previous one.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan both have superb individual and as the opening pair record in the UK and they could rise to the occasion tomorrow. Moreover, India is an excellent side setting and chasing targets. Playing in IPL has given them nerves of steel to handle big match situation.

All in all, India hold a wafer-thin edge over England in the final.