Last Updated on 5 years ago by Charbel Coorey
Ranked: England’s 3 best players in T20I series win vs Pakistan | Ranking 3 of England’s best players in T20I series win vs Pakistan
England wrapped up their white-ball summer with a thrilling series win over Pakistan. The victory meant a 2-1 scoreline in England’s favour and ensured they have now won all four of their limited-overs series in recent weeks – a total of 10 victories from a possible 12 games (one defeat and one no result). While it was a close call against Pakistan, they always felt just ahead of the game.
The T20I series against Pakistan was England’s last assignment on home turf before the mega event in UAE later this year. Prior to the start of the series, England captain Eoin Morgan stated that his team will look to work out with different combinations in the build-up to the T20 World Cup.
The number one T20I side in the world experimented with their resources in the 3-match series in order to fix the core of the team. Eoin Morgan tried a few things and in that process too he managed to win another bilateral series. It was a hard-fought series and it went down to the last over of the series to decide the winner. In this article, we’ll look at the 3 players who played a major role in the series win over Pakistan.
1. Liam Livingstone
This was just the series that Livingstone needed to announce his arrival at the international level. He started the series in roaring fashion with a record hundred in the Trent Bridge run-fest. Another demonstration of the versatility of the all-rounder saw him threatening right-handers with leg-spin and left-handers with off-spin.
Although he didn’t pick any wickets, he was used well as an extra bowling option. He accumulated 147 runs in the 3 game series at 49 with a blistering strike rate of 216.17 which earned him a deserving player of the series award. The Lancashire star player has timed his run perfectly to become undroppable from that World Cup squad and, almost certainly, the first-choice side.
2. Adil Rashid
One of Eoin Morgan’s most reliable men, Adil Rashid, again was the pick of England bowlers as he took 6 wickets including the best bowling performance of 4/35 coming in the third and final T20I. His best bowling figures helped England keep Pakistan to a total of less than 160.
England’s spin wizard was rested for the game England lost at Trent Bridge. He was then called back in the XI for the virtual decider in the 2nd T20I and made an immediate impact alongside Moeen Ali and Matt Parkinson to spin the game in England’s court. Rashid continues to enhance his reputation as a proven wicket-taker in the team and he’s only getting better with more games under his belt.
3. Moeen Ali
Before the start of the series, the expectations were certainly high of Moeen Ali, especially after the way he went about his business both with the bat and ball in the first phase of IPL 2021.
Although he didn’t get as many runs as he would have liked, he compensated with the ball by picking 3 wickets at 17 and conceded runs only at an economy rate of 7.28. A Player-of-the Match performance in the second T20I included a sparkling 16-ball 36 with the bat and two wickets with the ball. In the last game of the series, he didn’t give away a single boundary in his four-over spell to return with figures of 1-19.
Moeen badly needed a series like this as he was struggling to find a place in the XI. The absence of the likes Ben Stokes and Sam Curran gave him 3 games to re-establish himself again as England’s number 1 spinning all-rounder in the T20I side. And, he sure enjoyed batting higher up the order.
Written by Vaibhav Tripathi. Follow Vaibhav on Twitter today.
