Shreyas Iyer’s reign as Indian T20I captain didn’t go as he and the whole Indian think-tank would have wanted. After being humiliated by Ireland last month, the Men in Blue surrendered in front of England in the five-match series on Thursday with a game to spare as the visitors slumped to a nine-wicket loss in the fourth T20I in Bristol.
While Sanju Samson was dropped after three failures, his replacement and teen prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s first three games in international cricket yielded just 42 runs. Abhishek Sharma did score two fifties to show some form while Ishan Kishan produced another flop show in England after Ireland. Shreyas has been the lone bright light in Indian batting.
Without the likes of senior pros Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Suryakumar Yadav, this Indian team certainly looked a side in transition as a majority of the squad are playing on English soil for the first time in their career. Shreyas admitted that they are bound to make mistakes.
“Absolutely. See, this is the transition phase and we will be making lot of mistakes. You see a lot of youngsters playing here in these conditions for the first time. So mistakes will definitely make them realize how important it is to adapt and have that awareness when you come in the overseas conditions,” Shreyas said after England took a 4-0 lead in the series.
“It’s important that you learn quickly from your mistakes so that the team also benefits eventually out of it. And I’m sure that there are quick learners in the team. I’m sure they will assess themselves and get back stronger in the next game,” added the Indian skipper, still looking for his first win.
Why India lost in 4th T20I vs England?
While Shreyas has excelled in winning tosses, but his boys haven’t been able to deliver when it mattered. After being bundled out for just 76 in the third game, the Indian batting once again crumbled in the fourth T20I, especially the top three, before the skipper rescued his team with an unbeaten 80.
The Indian bowling also looked below par. Despite Arshdeep Singh’s dismissal of Jos Buttler, the likes of Shivam Dube, Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, were all guilty of leaking runs more then necessary. While Krishna, Dube and Yadav conceded 15 runs each in an over, Sundar and Axar gave away 19 runs each in an over.
Explaining their poor bowling performances, Shreyas made an honest admission of not executing according to the plans. “When we came onto bowling, I just asked our bowlers to repeat the lengths as much as possible because top of middle-stump and leg-stump, it was very difficult to hit and score boundaries off that,” the Indian captain explained.
“So I think we fell a bit short in terms of our execution. And, yeah, we saw that when we were changing the pace, when we were trying something else, they scored off those loose balls,” he added. “Definitely happy with my performance, but see, if it’s not on the winning cause, it just goes to the side.
“So disappointed in that aspect because whenever I play, I want to perform and see to it that my team wins. But unfortunately, today wasn’t that day. Definitely look forward to the next game,” Shreyas said.
With the series already out of their hands, India will aim for a consolation win in the fifth and the final T20I on Saturday. Post the T20I series, India will play a three-match ODI series under the leadership of Shubman Gill.