The Kent right-hander gave a glimpse of his potential during the first Warm-Up match against India A earlier this month, when in pursuit of 305 for a win, he made 93 runs to help his side edge past Dhoni's men with 7 balls to spare.

England will announce Hales's replacement in the T20 squad for the three-match series against India, starting on 26 January, in due course.

Batting wise, captain Kohli can't complain much.

The host's made one change with batsman Ajinkya Rahane replacing Shikar Dhawan. David Willey let slip a swinging delivery between his defenses to clatter the stumps.

The medium-fast bowler picked up three wickets in an eight-over spell where the English batsmen gave the Indian fielders catching practice. KL Rahul was also found wanting with the middle order again tasked with taking the team past the target. With last match centurion Yuvraj Singh in tow, Kohli went about his business passing a nervy phase during which he was beaten and dropped on 35.

However, mediumpacer Hardik Pandya and Off spinner R Jadeja attained moderate success bagging three and two England scalps conceding 49 and 62 runs respectively. They were pretty clever with their lines and lengths they bowled as well. England could have that wicket in the very first ball of Chris Woakes when Rahane's gloveskissed seam and wicketkeeper Jos Buttler had it in his gloves. Six overs later, Moeen Ali lured Yuvraj into a flick that flew to Billings at midwicket boundary which ended his promising knock at 45.

They hacked and pulled as the seam attack lost discipline, too often dragging short and drifting on to the pads. They have managed to keep the England team under check.

The game boiled down to Jadhav versus Woakes and the Englishman, after two damaging blows, won out. Kedar Jadhav, who scored a heroic 75-ball 90, couldn't find it in himself to close out the game, holing out at deep extra cover off the penultimate ball.

Stokes and Woakes combined to ensure England crossed the 300-run mark for the third time in as many matches.

In the India vs England contest, the series witnessed a festival of runs being scored. "Every game from now on is a stepping block for us going into mega tournament", Roy told reporters on the eve of the third ODI against India at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

It won't be surprising if Sam Billings is given the responsibility of opening the innings.

Roy was the first to get past the ropes, a flick off Bhuvneshwar and a crisp drive past mid-on fielder proving the excellent form he's in.

England's all-rounder Ben Stokes played another destructive innings as he hammered four boundaries and two sixes. Roy brought up his fifty in style as he smashed the ball over Ravindra Jadeja's head for a six. The previous best aggregate in a three-match series was 1892 runs by Asia XI in the three-match series against Africa XI in Bangalore and Chennai. While the Indian cricket team will be looking to make it a clean sweep over the unsafe England in the third game, the visitors will be keen to make amends and try and go past the finish line for at least once. His counterpart, Eoin Morgan, said he would have done the same.

"It was pretty similar to how we bowl on Indian surfaces and how we reverse swing the ball".