Shreyas Iyer is still searching for his first victory as India’s T20I captain.
Shreyas Iyer, who replaced T20 World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav last month, is still searching for his first victory as India’s T20I captain.
Iyer’s stint got off to a disastrous start as the Men in Blue suffered a humiliating 0-2 series defeat to Ireland. The performance went downhill in England, with India failing to register a win after three outings in the five-T20I series.
While the series opener against England ended in a frustrating no-result due to rain, India were outclassed in the second and third T20Is by four wickets and 125 runs, respectively.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik described India's 76 all-out in the third T20I as "one of the worst batting performances in a long time", adding that it was odd and surprising for a "disgruntled" skipper like Shreyas to come down so hard on his own batting unit.
“Yes, India didn’t bat well. Probably one of the worst batting performances in a long time. But it was interesting, maybe odd, you can say, for the captain to come quite hard at the batting unit," Karthik stated.
“He used the word atrocious to describe their batting and he used the word awful as well. You could see how disgruntled, a little bit upset, he was and he must be angry, understandably so, but knowing Shreyas Iyer, he has to come back because he is such a key member in that batting unit, that if he scores, the team looks different, as we have seen with PBKS," he added.
The defeat at Trent Bridge stands as India's heaviest run-margin loss in T20I history. This also marked the first instance of India failing to win any of their last five T20I encounters.
The reigning T20 world champions trail 0-2 in the five-T20I series against England and face a must-win situation in the penultimate match at Bristol on Thursday (July 9) to keep the series alive.