England vs India 2018: Combined Playing XI

​

England lifting the trophy after the 4-1 series victory.

Indian tour to England might have come to a disappointing end with England winning the five match test series 4-1, but as Virat Kohli said during the post-match presentation, "It was a perfect advertisement for Test Cricket".

A series where both teams had their chances in equal number and victory came down to the small margin of errors, one team was left with the feeling of 'what if", "could have" and "should have" and the other team went in with the feeling of joy and success.

Many players contributed in making this series as exciting as it was with some brilliant individual performances. And here we are picking a combined playing XI picking the best performers from both the sides. 

---

Openers

Alastair Cook

Cook can certainly leave with his head held high

This series was a nightmare for openers from both the sides till the fourth test match. However, in the last test match of the series and his career too, Alastair Cook showed his class once again and gave a Man Of The Match performance scoring 71 runs in the first innings and a brilliant 147 runs in his last international innings. He also ended up being England's second highest run-getter with 327 runs in nine innings only behind Jos Buttler.

KL Rahul

Rahul showed his class with a brilliant 149

KL Rahul was the only Indian opener who got to play all five matches in the series (albeit, he came one down in the first test).

He too struggled to get going, just like every other opener in the series, but showed his class in the last innings while chasing 464 runs when he gave a master class on batting en route to 149 runs. He just like Cook, ended up being the second highest run-getter for his side.

​