India lost two T20Is to Ireland and four to England with one T20I getting rained out.
Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has attributed India's poor T20I campaign abroad to the IPL's batting-friendly atmosphere, arguing that the league's structural problems should be addressed rather than blaming players alone for the team's shortcomings.
India had a terrible trip to the United Kingdom after winning the T20 World Cup and starting a new chapter under skipper Shreyas Iyer. They lost the two-match T20I series in Ireland and then lost to England 0-4 in the five-match series, with the first match getting rained out.
Following the defeats, Manjrekar claimed that the IPL presents an exaggerated image of a batter's skill and encouraged the selectors to consider factors other than league results when assembling teams for overseas trips.
"The easy thing would be is to hold players responsible for this overseas T20 setback. The right thing would be is to hold those responsible who have made IPL such, that it puts a heavy make up on Indian batters," Manjrekar wrote on X.
He remarked that in order to prepare India's T20 team for overseas missions, the selectors must now go beyond IPL results.
“Challenge is for the selectors to imagine Indian batters without the heavy IPL make up on & pick only those for India. A lot of T20 cricket will be overseas now. The home fun run is over,” he added.
The flat pitches prepared for the Indian Premier League have led to Indian batters struggling to cope with seam movement and disciplined pace bowling in Ireland and England.
While the shorter boundaries, high-scoring contests, and batting-heavy matches in IPL have been great entertainment, they have led to power-hitting strategies rather than working on batting and building innings in difficult conditions.
Parthiv Patel, a former wicketkeeper-batter for India, recently expressed similar worries, claiming that India's lack of talented all-rounders was exacerbated by the Impact Player rule. He claimed that teams were deterred from supporting players who could contribute with both bat and ball because of the restriction.
India’s next T20I assignment will be in Zimbabwe, where they will play three matches in Harare starting on July 23.