Though the English all-rounder Ben Stokes has been added in the England T20I squad for the last T20I against India at Bristol County Ground (Bristol) on Sunday, England captain Eoin Morgan is not sure that whether Stokes can earn a spot in the playing XI for that important game.

Currently, their three-match home T20I series is level by 1-1 after the second game on Friday at Cardiff where England beat India by 5 wickets (with 2 balls remaining).

Talking about the Stokes inclusion in the team for the last T20I, Morgan said, “He comes into the squad for the next game and he is a fantastic player and it will be a difficult decision to make. We have made calls like this in the past and we will make the call for the benefit of the team and put out our strongest XI.”

Stokes has joined the national squad after playing a smashing knock of 90 runs off 68 balls in a domestic T20 game for Durham against Yorkshire at Leeds on Thursday. Though his team lost that game by 44 runs, his knock has created a chance for him in the national squad for the upcoming T20I.

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Earlier, the all-rounder missed the first two T20I games in this series due to the hamstring injury. However, he is now fit and already has been selected for the next three-match home ODI series against India.

Coming to the Cardiff T20I on Friday, England chased down the 149-run target in the final over, thanks to Alex Hales’ mature and responsible knock of unbeaten 58 runs off 41 balls (4 fours and 3 sixes).

While Morgan believes that they played better in Cardiff than the first T20I at Old Trafford, he has also lauded Alex Hales for his impressive match-winning knock.

The English captain said, “Alex always makes it difficult particularly in T20 cricket. He has played a lot of T20 for us and he is a very experienced campaigner. An innings like that gives him a pretty strong case for the next game. He really did play brilliantly. He has played a lot international T20 cricket and he has played a lot around the world. It was a mature innings.

“But we played better than we did at Old Trafford and the plans we had we committed to more. There was a lot more clarity in the shots that we played.”

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Earlier in the Cardiff T20I, England bowlers restricted the Indian team to 148/5 in the first innings. David Willey and Liam Plunket engineered that moment as they had the impressive bowling figures of 1/18 and 1/17 respectively after completing their four-over quotas.

Morgan praised his bowlers by quoting, “I thought they bowled brilliantly. David Willey set the tone. Jake Ball gave us three really good overs on his debut and they all hit their lengths really well and it presents opportunities to take wickets and they did it well.”