The Indian team, which looked invincible under Suryakumar Yadav, has suddenly hit rock bottom a few months after winning the T20 World Cup.
IMAGE: The Indian team suffered successive T20I series whitewashes in Ireland and England. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Key Points
- Under Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy, India enjoyed an incredible unbeaten run, registering nine series wins in a row from July 2024 till the 2026 T20 World Cup earlier this year which they successfully defended at home.
- India were thrashed by a dominant England side as they suffered a 4-0 series whitewash, coming on the back of a humiliating 2-0 series sweep in Ireland.
- It is time for the BCCI to scrap the Impact Player rule in the IPL which has only hampered the growth of Indian all-rounders.
It has turned out to be a nightmarish few weeks for Team India.
The Shreyas Iyer-led team was taken apart by a dominant England side as they suffered a 4-0 series whitewash, coming on the back of a humiliating 2-0 series sweep in Ireland.
The highly debatable move to sack Suryakumar Yadav after leading India to the T20 World Cup title has come under the scanner, especially with his successor Shreyas Iyer going winless in his first seven games.
Under Suryakumar’s captaincy, India enjoyed an incredible unbeaten run, registering nine series wins in a row from July 2024 till the 2026 T20 World Cup which they successfully defended at home earlier this year.
India’s disastrous showing in England has left the fans fuming, while the BCCI will hold a review meeting to ascertain the causes of the poor performance.
A look at what went wrong for Team India in Ireland and England:
Did India press the reset button too early?
IMAGE: Shreyas Iyer has gone winless in his first seven matches as India’s T20I captain. Photograph: Cat Goryn/Reuters
In an ideal world, Suryakumar Yadav would have enjoyed the full backing of the selectors after leading India to their third T20 World Cup title. But in a highly controversial move, not only did the selectors strip him of his captaincy but also dropped him from the team following a lean run with the bat in recent months.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee then made the surprising decision to hand the reins of the Indian T20 team to Shreyas Iyer, who was shockingly ignored for the last two-and-a-half years despite his superb record as a batter and captain in the last few seasons of the IPL.
Notably, the selectors chose to overlook the experienced Sanju Samson, the hero of India’s T20 World Cup victory, for the India captaincy despite his solid track record while leading Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.
The Shreyas gamble has backfired big time, with India losing back to back T20I series for only the third time in their history — in a total of 74 series played by them since 2006-2007.
A team which looked invincible under Suryakumar has suddenly hit rock bottom.
It is difficult to process what would have hurt the Indian team more — whether it is the humiliation of a 2-0 series sweep against an injury-hit Ireland or the 4-0 series whitewash in England, where they were hammered in all four completed games.
The Samson-Sooryavanshi Conundrum
IMAGE: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has shown potential but his carefree approach saw him score only 42 runs in three games in England. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
It seems the Indian team management, especially Head Coach Gautam Gambhir, played to the gallery. Sanju Samson getting the axe after just three games following his heroics in the T20 World Cup drew criticism from all quarters.
‘Sooryavanshi Sooryavanshi’ was the chant ever since the Indian team landed in the UK. The Indian team management seemed to have caved in to the pressure from the fans on social media and also greats like Sunil Gavaskar by drafting in the 15 year old in what turned out to be the biggest test of his nascent career. He came up against the fired-up English pace duo of Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue on pitches offering some extra bounce and zip, as the young left-hander struggled to live up to the hype in England.
But Sooryavanshi cannot be blamed for playing in his natural aggressive style, which has seen him climb the ranks at unbelievable speed to make it to the Indian team.
The failures in England would have made Sooryavanshi realise international cricket and the IPL or age group cricket. England’s pacers, especially Archer — his Rajasthan Royals team-mate, seem to have identified a chink in his armour — short balls bowled at the body which accounted for the opener’s wicket in two of the three matches.
In fact, the bouncers became the bane of the Indian batting line-up as they came undone against the England’s pacers throughout the T20I series.
No doubt Sooryavanshi has shown potential but his carefree approach saw him score only 42 runs in three games with scores of 14, 13 and 15. It seemed his reckless batting approach invited the ire of Gambhir, known to be a tough taskmaster, as he made way for Samson for the fifth match.
Samson responded with 27 from 14 games in his comeback game but finds himself out of the Indian team for the upcoming Zimbabwe series where Sooryavanshi has a real chance to make the opening slot his own.
It remains to be seen who will be the preferred opener among Samson and Sooryavanshi during India’s next T20I assignment — a five-match series against the West Indies in September-October on batting friendly pitches at home.
Why Was Kishan Preferred Over Varma At No 3?
IMAGE: It would make sense for India to restore Tilak Varma at No 3 where he has achieved a lot of success in the past. Photograph: Cat Goryn/Reuters
Other than Samson and Sooryavanshi, the Indian team management were guilty of making too many other changes.
Tilak Varma, who enjoyed a good run at No 3 in T20Is in the past, was shuffled right through the tours of Ireland and England as the batting line-up struggled to cope on testing pitches.
Varma may have copped some flak for his struggles with the bat in England and Ireland but the fact is that the left-hander didn’t get much time out in the middle, as he was constantly shuffled up and down the order.
The India vice-captain boasts of a good record at No 3 with 649 runs in 20 innings at a strike rate of 151.99 with two hundreds and three fifties. But lower down the order from No 4 to No 7, his record is comparatively not that good with 919 runs in 33 innings at a strike rate of 138.61, including five fifties.
In the two innings in Ireland, he batted at No 5 whereas in England he was shuffled between No 5 and 6, where he copped a lot of criticism for his struggles in the middle order but to be fair he was constantly shunted behind all-rounders Shivam Dube and Axar Patel in the batting order.
When given a proper chance with with enough overs in hand at No 5, he proved his worth with a quickfire 53 from 25 balls in a losing cause in the fifth and final T20I in Southampton.
On the other hand, Ishan Kishan has enjoyed a long run at No 3 despite struggling with the bat in England and Ireland. He tallied 122 runs in five games in England at a strike rate of 132.60 after he had managed only 13 runs in the two games in Ireland.
It would make sense for India to restore Varma at No 3 where he has achieved a lot of success in the past, with Kishan moving down the order.
IPL’s Impact Player Rule Hurting Team India?
IMAGE: Spin all-rounder Washington Sundar hasn’t inspired confidence with either bat or ball in overseas conditions. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Hardik Pandya’s injury-prone career in the last couple of years has forced the selectors to try out a few other options. The hard-hitting seam bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy looked a good fit for the T20 team but he also been battling fitness issues in the last year or so.
Shivam Dube is more of a batting all-rounder and his slow medium pace bowling doesn’t hold much of a threat on good batting wickets.
Meanwhile, spin all-rounders Washington Sundar and Axar Patel haven’t inspired confidence with either bat or ball in overseas conditions.
It is no secret that the IPL’s Impact Player Rule has diminished the role of all-rounders in recent years. The IPL teams prefer to bring in a specialist batter or a bowler in the playing XI depending on the toss thereby reducing dependence on all-rounders.
Former India wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel claimed that IPL’s Impact Player rule has hindered the development of quality all-rounders in India
‘For the past 10 years, we have been saying the same thing, everything will be fine when Jasprit Bumrah comes back. Everything will be alright when Hardik Pandya returns. But it’s been 10 years, and we still haven’t found a replacement for either Hardik Pandya or Jasprit Bumrah,’ said Parthiv.
‘The biggest reason behind that is the IPL’s Impact Player rule. Bumrah is a different case, but India will not be able to find the all-rounder they are looking for until the Impact Player rule is removed from the IPL.’
Clearly, it is time for the BCCI to scrap the Impact Player rule in the IPL which in the past has been openly panned by the three greats — Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Also, the Board needs to have a major rethink on the kind of pitches being used in the last few seasons of the IPL. The batting beauties may have proved to be a big hit with the fans but it has ended up destroying the confidence of the Indian bowlers, especially spinners, while the batters have then struggled overseas on testing pitches.
Overdependence On Jasprit Bumrah
In the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, India’s pace bowling was dismantled in England.
England’s batters scored at more 10 than per over across the four games of the series. In the second game, they chased down 191 in 19 overs, while smashing 201 in 20 overs in the next match at Nottingham.
England’s batters produced another dominating display to race to the victory target of 159 in the fourth game in only 13.5 overs.
India’s bowlers slipped even further in the last game at Southampton, when Jos Buttler’s blistering century (131 from 65 balls) and Harry Brook’s 45-ball 95 powered them to a massive 257/3 — the highest ever total conceded by India in T20 Internationals.
The likes of pacers Arshdeep Singh (economy rate 9.47), Prasidh Krishna (9.14), Prince Yadav (10.72) and Harshit Rana (10) leaked runs in plenty while totalling just 10 wickets between them.
In contrast, England’s pace trio of Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Sam Curran shared the spoils with seven wickets each.
Bumrah was rested for the T20I series to manage his workload as he will next feature in the ODI series in England. But in future, India will need to give a serious thought to have Bumrah in their playing XI for the T20I games played overseas especially in SENA countries where their batters struggle to dominate.
England’s Spinners Prosper; India’s Spinners Struggle
India were comprehensively outplayed in the spin department too.
Varun Chakravarthy looked totally flat as he managed just a single wicket in the three games while going at above 10 per over. His spin colleagues fared no better as Axar Patel claimed two wickets at 11.14, while leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi bowled just four overs in two games played in which he went for 15 per over and Washington Sundar bowled just a single over in the one game he played.
For England, 38-year-old Adil Rashid led the way in the middle overs as he bagged six wickets in five matches, while Liam Dawson (2) and Will Jacks (3) played the perfect supporting roles with economy rates of under nine.
It is just baffling why India don’t pick the highly-rated Kuldeep Yadav despite his superb record in T20 Internationals — 95 wickets in 54 games at an economy rate of 6.95. The only thing which goes against him is that he is not as capable with the bat as Sundar and Axar, but unlike them he can single-handedly win matches with the ball.
Will Gambhir Survive Again?
IMAGE: Under Gautam Gambhir, India has suffered multiple series whitewashes across formats. Photograph: BCCI
Shreyas Iyer and his players have received a lot of backlash for their shambolic performances in Ireland and England.
But the duo of Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar and Head Coach Gautam Gambhir must take equal blame. What turned out to be a big shake-up after a triumphant T20 World Cup has ended in a humiliating nightmare.
Under Gambhir, India has now suffered multiple series whitewashes across formats. They were trounced 3-0 by New Zealand and 2-0 by South Africa in home Tests series in successive years but have now gone even worse in T20 cricket with two successive series whitewashes.
It would be difficult to imagine any other head coach or chairman of selectors surviving after such disastrous results.
As is the case with the players, there is no dearth of quality Indian coaches in the IPL either with the likes of Ashish Nehra, Hemang Badani and Dinesh Karthik doing commendable job for their franchises.
Yet Gambhir is likely to enjoy the full backing of the BCCI, while the cricket-crazy fans will once again rally behind him when the Indian team gets back to winning ways at home.
