Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa opined that Indian cricketers might be lacking somewhere by not playing in foreign franchise leagues and hence they are not able to perform in the ICC tournaments.

This came after India lost the second T20I by 2 wickets to West Indies in the five-match series, which was played in Guyana on Sunday, August 6, 2023.

The absence of exposure outside of the Indian Premier League, according to former Indian batsman Robin Uthappa, is hurting India in ICC competitions.

Because of the IPL, players like Nicholas Pooran have a lot of experience playing against Indian bowlers, according to Uthappa, but Indian stars cannot claim to have the same advantage.

"Well, yeah, I certainly think the exposure at the IPL and I think it is a trick that India misses out, especially in the ICC tournaments, because we don't play any other leagues in any other part of the world,” Uthappa said on JioCinema.

Though he agreed with BCCI not allowing Indian players in foreign leagues to protect the IPL brand, Uthappa said that the lack of experience in overseas conditions does hurt a young team like this.

"And I think yes, it does well to protect the IPL as an entity, but I think it costs us at the ICC level. And I think those are the advantages that the accomplished players have against our Indian bowlers when they play them in bilateral or they play against them in ICC tournament.

They have had so much exposure against them in the nets and playing against them in the IPL for years 3,4,5,6 years. So you already know what the bowler does, you already know what the batter does. So you have a lot of information," Uthappa further added.

The third T20I will be played in Guyana on Tuesday, August 8.