India vs England, 3rd T20I, Fantasy Pick, team suggestions

March 19, 2021

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Fantasy suggestions for the third T20I between India and England

Feb 16: India vs England, 3rd T20I, Ahmedabad

Pro Tip: Make sure you have both captaincy choices and preferably extra players from the chasing team since they have had huge advantages so far in this series.

Our XI: Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Jason Roy, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer

Substitutes: Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan

Player availability: Rohit Sharma is likely to be drafted into the playing XI for this game. For England, Mark Wood will replace Tom Curran if he passes the fitness test.

We might not always be able to tip you off about late injury (or other relevant) updates, so please finalise your team after the toss.

Captain: Rohit Sharma

If Rohit Sharma is back into the side, he should be your captain for this game. He has been in fine form in T20Is, scoring four 50-plus scores in his last ten games at a strike rate of 157.89. In the recent Test series against England, he was the leading scorer for India with 345 runs.

Vice-captain: Jason Roy

Jason Roy has been very good in both the games so far, recording scores of 49 and 46, and will be eyeing that elusive 50-run mark in this game. His strike rate of 143.79 in T20Is is one of the best for an opener in this format. If his opening partner Jos Buttler also starts firing, expect him to score big runs.

Hot Picks

Virat Kohli: On the back of a masterclass knock of 73*(49), the Indian captain should be one of your first-choice picks for this game. Since 2019 – among the top 10 teams – nobody has scored more runs than his 834 runs in at an average of 55.60 and a strike rate of 144.54. He was India’s highest run-scorer in their last T20I series against Australia with 134 runs in three games.

Jofra Archer: Archer was the IPL 2020’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the Man of the Match in the first game for his figures of 4-1-23-3. For a fast bowler, he has phenomenal returns in the sub-continent where he has taken 64 wickets in 48 games at an average of 20.59 across all T20s. In his last 23 T20 games, he has gone wicketless only four times and so he is unlikely to go wicketless for this game.

Rishabh Pant: Pant’s confidence will be sky-high after producing some match-winning performances in the last couple of Test series. Although yet to flaunt his batting abilities in T20I circuit, he has been a phenomenal player in the IPL over the last three years scoring 1515 runs at an average of 40.94 and a strike rate of 152.26, the third highest in the tournament. He has played a couple of handy cameos with the bat already in this series.

Differential Picks

Jos Buttler: After not being at his best in the first couple of games in this series, expect Buttler to come back strongly in this game. He has been in splendid form since taking over opening for England, scoring 583 runs in 16 games at an average of 44.84 and a strike rate of 152.21. He loves batting in India, as he has amassed a staggering 767 runs in his last 16 T20s here, at an average of 54.78.

Washington Sundar: The youngest member of the squad across both the teams in this T20I series, Sundar has been exceptional with the ball. Since making his T20I debut, he has picked up the second-most number of wickets (12) and has the best economy (6.46) for spinners in the powerplay with a minimum of15 innings. For a bowler who has played 28 T20I games, not once conceding over 40 runs speaks volumes about his consistency.

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