CHENNAI: Never before in their history have India lost four or more matches in a bilateral T20I series. Never before has India finished a bilateral series (3 or more matches) without winning a game. Since 2016, the Men in Blue have not lost four or more matches in any white-ball series across formats (1-4 loss in ODI series in Australia, 2016).
All that will be at stake as captain Shreyas Iyer and coach Gautam Gambhir put their heads together to pick the playing XI for the fifth and final T20I against England in Southampton on Saturday.
Since they landed in Belfast at the end of June for the T20I series in Ireland, India have lost all but one of their five matches, and now, the final game offers a chance to get back to winning ways before the old guard – Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – join them for the ODIs.
It seems so simple, but doing so may not be so easy. Throughout the six matches, the Indian bowlers have struggled to adapt to conditions that help runners and provide extra bounce. They have also not adapted their shot selection to the tough lengths from the English pacers and it has cost them dearly. Then there is the issue of chopping and changing by team managers along with fitness concerns. Put it all together, Iyer and Gambhir are yet to set foot in the right direction since joining.
So much so, as often happens after any bad series (2024 New Zealand Tests, 2025 Gavaskar Trophy Border, South Africa Tests etc.) BCCI is set to review the performance after the series. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia reportedly called it a “bad phase”. Meanwhile, no knee-jerk reaction is expected from the captain or the coach, given that the secretary spoke on similar lines after the Test series loss in Guwahati last year.
However, this does not take away any pressure that Iyer and Gambhir may be feeling, especially the former who is yet to win a match as India’s captain. For someone who has established his authority as a captain in the Indian Premier League and domestic cricket, the Mumbaikar is yet to make this team his own. And it shows in the decisions made. Whether it is stacking the line-up with all-rounders – Washington Sundar, Prince Yadav and Harshit Rana coming in and out of the XI – or having three left-handers at the top, having seven southpaws and moving Tilak Varma to No.6 from his usual top three, it has Gambhir’s imprint on it. This, meanwhile, does not take any responsibility off the captain, who has also been unremarkable with his fielding tactics or inspiring batting performances (apart from the fourth T20I).
