Indian captain Shreyas Iyer rated India’s performance in the third T20I against England as atrocious. England posted a decent score of 201 runs on the board after Phil Salt top-scored with 70 runs. Salt got off to a slow start but he was able to change gears.
Furthermore, Sam Curran and Jos Buttler scored 41 and 36 runs respectively. Axar Patel was the most expensive Indian bowler as he returned with figures of 1-49 in his four overs.
However, India was skittled out for a paltry score of 76 runs as the visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals. None of the Indian batters could even go past 15 runs as India suffered their biggest T20I loss.
“I think it was atrocious. I couldn’t use a better word, honestly,” Iyer said of the loss in the presentation ceremony, chiding his team for losing their way inside the Powerplay.
“Losing by such a big margin is definitely not acceptable. First things first, I feel that we need to accept this loss and completely go back to the drawing board and see what we did wrong. Looking at the wicket, I don’t think that it was a 200 wicket. But other than that, the way we batted, we lost four (five) wickets in the Powerplay. I think that itself did create the momentum, and definitely I feel that we lost over there. So, we’ve got to go back to the drawing board.”
India was reduced to 52-5 in five overs and from there on, it was always going to be an uphill task.
On the other hand, head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted the Indian team currently lacks experience and thus they have been found wanting.
“A 15-year-old player is opening the batting, you have Prince Yadav who just played his second T20I. There’s Harshit Rana who is just coming back from injury. It’s very easy to say things but ultimately we see the results and no doubt, results are important in international cricket. But being practical is also very important. Many times you give time to the players to grow, to develop. But especially against such a team – England are a high-quality side – if you push players into such a deep sea, give them a little time and they will eventually develop. Because after a reset, things take time to get back to normal,” Gambhir said in the presser.
The fourth T20I between England and India will be played at Bristol, County Ground on Thursday.
