Delhi: It would not be wrong to believe that this Ireland and England tour was one of the worst periods of Indian cricket which ended without a win. The most important thing to remember is that if India is not the number 1 team in Asia in T20 by the end of 2026, then direct qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be left and only the Global Qualifying Tournament method will survive.

So should we blame team captain Shreyas Iyer for all this? Social media is full of blaming Shreyas Iyer but is it right? 5 Factors to Note:

1. The team was not properly prepared for English conditions: India’s aggressive batting formula, which won the T20 World Cup, did not work in English conditions. Head coach Gautam Gambhir also admitted that the team needed to understand the conditions better, especially the wind, size of the boundary and the nature of the pitch. On top of that, the team came to England after losing the T20I series (0–2) in Ireland and here too they did not get any win in 5 matches.

No practice matches and no thought that the first half of the English cricket season can demoralize even the best teams. The planning of this tour was wrong.

2. Top-order batting collapsed: India’s top order overall failed miserably. Why blame Shreyas Iyer? Shreyas scored 218 runs and in the list of most runs by an Indian captain in a T20 International series, only Suryakumar Yadav (242) and Virat Kohli (231) have more runs than him. In the third T20 International of the series, they were all out for just 76 runs against the target of 202 runs.

Made the second lowest T20 International score and also suffered the biggest defeat (125 runs) in this format in which only 4 batsmen could reach double figures. What could be a bigger batting failure than this? If we compare the batting unit, we did not face England’s stormy top order in any match.

3. It is not that there was no pressure, but England were repeatedly given a chance to make a comeback: Understand this from the second T20 International when England came back from the score of 0/2 to achieve the target of 191 runs and Jacob Bethel’s 76* turned the tables.

Such runs were conceded in the 17th over that the trend of the match turned towards England. In the fifth T20 International, England posted a massive score of 257/3, failing to break the 233-run partnership of Jos Buttler (131) and Harry Brook (95*) early on.
The bowling lacked edge and could not stop England’s aggressive batting. In the fourth T20 International, England achieved the target of 159 runs with 37 balls left and lost only one wicket. In the two matches in which England played full 20 overs, they reached the score of 200 and in the last match they scored 257/3 runs. There was constant pressure on India’s bowling attack. After the powerplay, the Indian bowling attack became ineffective. Could this team bear the loss of Jasprit Bumrah? Add to this the poor fielding in which catches kept getting dropped.

4. Vaibhav Suryavanshi spoiled the balance of the team: With so much discussion, Vaibhav brought Suryavanshi into the team but could not handle him. The team didn’t know what to do with it? When he was not fed, then in every discussion it was said that if you did not want to feed him then why did you choose him? If the T20 World Cup player of the match is removed from the team? No one could bear this either. The three matches in which Vaibhav Suryavanshi played were flops. This equation will always be discussed in Indian cricket. If a new player had to be introduced, then either he was introduced at the beginning of the series or when the team was winning continuously. Vaibhav Suryavanshi was put in a difficult situation when the team’s confidence was very low and on top of that Sanju Samson was dropped without any mistake.

5. An all-rounder was not found: The team’s balance was disturbed by the lack of an all-rounder like Hardik Pandya. To fill the place, such players were included in the 11 who were neither good bowlers nor good batsmen and the ‘tail’ on that started from number 8. The team needed a ‘Hardik Pandya’ more than Jasprit Bumrah. India’s obsession with fielding all-rounders resulted in only mediocre performance and the team suffered the most losses. In the fifth T20 International, Akshar, who kept feeding Shedge and Dubey with the tag of all-rounder, scored 124 runs in his 8 overs.

It would not be right to blame Shreyas Iyer alone for India’s defeat in this tour and especially in England. Many factors were responsible for this defeat. This series has exposed the shortcomings that the T20 World Cup champions will have to correct before their next big match.