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Selection bombshells as Root, Kuldeep axed

Both India and England pull selection surprises ahead of the deciding match of their T20 series in Bristol

England's Test captain Joe Root has been surprisingly axed from their T20 side, a week after his coach insisted his place would be safe if and when allrounder Ben Stokes returned.

The fit-again Stokes has edged out Root for a spot in England's XI for the deciding match of their three-game T20 International series against India in Bristol.

And the visitors had a selection shock of their own on Sunday, dropping wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav for debutant quick Deepak Chahar just two games after bowling India to victory with a five-wicket haul in the T20 series-opener.

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Alex Hales had been touted as the most likely man to make way for Stokes when he returned from a hamstring injury, but he played a match-winning hand in England's five-wicket win in Cardiff on Friday.

The powerful right-hander struck three sixes in an unbeaten 58 off 41 balls to get the hosts over the line in the final over to level the series. 

With the other batsmen in captain Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow all displaying strong recent limited-overs form recently, England's selectors were posed with a difficult (albeit enviable) conundrum.

Asked if Root remained in their first-choice T20 team last week, acting coach Paul Farbrace said: "Absolutely. You need your best batsman. I can't believe anybody else in our set-up would argue against that.

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"He (Root) is world-class in all forms of the game. You do need nous, and you do need people playing in different ways.

"There will be times when he is the outstanding player in a T20 game and gets us over the line.

"The best players adapt and score runs, whether it is 20 overs or 50 overs or Test match cricket, and he is without doubt one of the finest players in the world. He could go anywhere from three to six - and it is nice having that flexibility and that cool, calm head."

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India's decision to drop Kuldeep is arguably an even bigger surprise given the spinner's brilliant record in the shortest format. 

In 12 T20Is for India, the left-armer has 24 wickets at 13.20 with an economy rate of 7.28 and on Tuesday he bowled his side to victory over England with a devastating 5-24 in their first T20I win at Old Trafford.

Kuldeep did however go wicketless in the second match of the series, conceding 34 runs and, like Cardiff, Bristol is another venue with short straight boundaries that make life difficult for spin bowlers.

England XI: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball.

India XI: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.