England vs West Indies, T20 World Cup 2016, Final at Kolkata: England’s likely XI

No team is a clear favourite going into the match making it a suspense thriller.

England and West Indies square-off in the final of T20 World Cup 2016 on Sunday at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It is anticipated that the match will be a close affair, and some animated inceptions of cricket fans of their respective teams will gain concrete shape on the cricket field. Both these teams have won the ICC World T20 one each in the past. England are the 2010 champions whereas West Indies won the 2012 tournament. The English and the Caribbeans have played some excellent cricket so far which has helped them reach the final. Some of their performances were in extreme pressure situations. Live Cricket Score: England vs West Indies, T20 World Cup 2016, Final at Kolkata

No team is a clear favourite going into the match making it a suspense thriller. This is the second time that West Indies and England will face each other in the tourney. West Indies having won that league fixture by six wickets have a slight psychological edge for the final. They played well in their semi-final match played against India when chips were down. England, on the other hand are in smashing touch with both bat and ball. It might not be prudent for them to fidget with their winning combination. Bhaskar Narayan scans through the likely XI for the English team.

Top-order: Jason Roy and Alex Hales will open the innings for England. Roy is one of the reasons why England have been so successful in the tournament. With a strike rate of 151.23, he is the fifth highest run-scorer and second for England after Joe Root. His partner Hales has got starts but is yet to convert them into big scores. Root will continue to come one-down. He is the most important England batsman taking into consideration his class and form. Root is already hailed by some cricket pundits as the most complete batsman produced by England in all formats of the game. England fans will be hoping that he plays the role of a sheet anchor.

Middle-order: Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler will be responsible to steady the ship if England lose early wickets. Morgan has not been in good form and what would be a better time than the final of the most prestigious T20I tournament to regain form by making some healthy contribution in the middle overs. Buttler has been the third most successful English batsman and sixth in the world for this year’s World T20. He has scored 155 runs at an envious average of 51.66. Buttler has batted with a phenomenal strike rate of 158.16 which is the best among batsmen with more than 150 runs.

All-rounders: England have three all-rounders— one batting and two bowling viz. Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and David Willey. Ben Stokes will come at sixth position in the batting order. He has not got enough opportunities owing to which he has not scored enough runs. Given his ability to score at a brisk pace he will be quite handy at the sixth spot. Stokes has bowled pretty fine at the death with his good line and length. He was special with his medium-fast deliveries against New Zealand in the semi-final, and was instrumental in England’s victory. He took a three-wicket haul and was the most successful bowler in the match.  Moeen, who will come next, will be responsible to make the most out of the final few overs of the innings. He has chipped in with a wicket or two as well whenever the need arose. David Willey’s primary duty is to give England early breakthroughs with his left-arm pace bowling though his hard hitting may help the team in the lower-order as well.

Bowling: Willey and Liam Plunkett will ideally share the new ball with Chris Jordan being the first change. Morgan may even prefer Willey to open the proceedings with Jordan like he did in the semi-final. England have two spinners in their ranks with Adil Rashid and Moeen. To make matters difficult for West Indies, the combination of off-break and leg-break bowlers will be tough to adjust to. Stokes, though not quick is one of the main bowlers for England, and his performance with the ball has been satisfactory in ICC World T20 2016.

England Likely XI (in batting order): Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett

(Bhaskar Narayan is a reporter at CricketCountry and Criclife. He passionately follows the game and is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. His Twitter handle is @Cricopathy)

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