India vs Ireland (Agency photo)
Former India opener Sadagopan Ramesh launched a scathing criticism of Team India’s approach following their 34-run defeat to Ireland in the opening T20I on Friday, accusing the visitors of underestimating the hosts and paying the price for their complacency.The Indian batting collapsed while chasing 183, with the Shreyas Iyer-led side bowled out for 148 before completing their allotted 20 overs. The result also marked Ireland’s first victory over India in all international formats.
Ramesh felt that the defeat was rooted in overconfidence, suggesting that India had mentally shifted their focus to the upcoming England series rather than respecting their Irish opponents. He credited Ireland with executing their plans intelligently, particularly by using bigger boundaries and overwhelming the Indian batsmen with short-pitched bowling.“Ireland deserve credit for using the bigger boundaries and testing the Indian players with short passes. It was clear that India played the match casually. They thought the Ireland series was a picnic tour, and they would win easily, and were only serious about the England series. But Ireland taught India a lesson by saying this is no picnic,” Ramesh said on his YouTube channel.India struggled throughout the chase, with only Abhishek Sharma making a meaningful contribution. The left-handed opener fired 49 off just 20 deliveries, while the rest of the batting line-up, including captain Shreyas Iyer, failed to make any impact. Iyer’s stay at the crease lasted just seven balls.
Continuing his criticism, Ramesh described the Irish series as an unexpected addition to India’s schedule but insisted that could never justify the performance.“The Ireland series was not originally scheduled. It was a pickle for the main course, which was England. But India embarrassingly couldn’t handle the flavor of the pickle, which was Ireland. No matter what excuses can be made for this, it is a shocking and appalling defeat for Team India.”
Overconfidence is never healthy, which is why India’s story ended last night. “India should be confident but not overconfident,” he added.Ramesh also termed the defeat unacceptable considering that India entered the series as T20 World Cup champions. He wondered how a team that had spent months playing high-level T20 cricket, including the World Cup and the Indian Premier League, could stumble so badly against Ireland.“Yes, even an elephant slips sometimes. But how can that happen against Ireland? This is shocking, especially for a team whose last T20 match was the World Cup final. After a month of T20 cricket in the World Cup, all the Indian players played another 3 months of IPL. Playing 4 continuous months of T20 cricket and then losing to Ireland is inexplicable,” Ramesh said.The former batsman also cited India’s sloppy performance as another major reason behind the defeat, highlighting that frequent dropped catches allowed Ireland to post a difficult total of over 180.
He also argued that the Impact Player rule in the IPL has enabled some players to hide deficiencies in the field, which is not possible in international cricket.“India have played shockingly bad cricket. They have dropped catches from the T20 World Cup to the Indian Premier League until yesterday. They always seem to drop high catches. In the Indian Premier League, you can just bat or bowl and cover the field because of the Impact Player option. But in international cricket, you have to be a good fielder to be in the 11th over. Many players have escaped in the IPL because of the Impact Player rule by just batting.”