A dejected Shreyas Iyer after losing his wicket vs England (Source: AFP)
The defending T20 World Cup champions, the Indian Men’s Cricket Team, began their new era under a new T20I captain, Shreyas Iyer. However, things don’t seem to be going exactly according to the plan.
After a spotless period under Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy, marked by an undefeated run and the capture of both the 2025 Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup 2026 titles, the Men in Blue have suffered a rare slump in their transition phase. Which has left them on the verge of a back-to-back T20I series defeat.
India succumbed to the lowest: Suffer a first-ever series loss at the hands of Ireland
June 28, 2026, will indeed go down as one of the most embarrassing days in Indian cricket’s recent history. The team lost the two-match T20I series to Ireland, handing the hosts their first-ever bilateral T20I series win over India.
Nobody could have predicted this before the tour, considering this is almost the same team that won the T20 World Cup 2026.
What made the defeat even harder to digest was the fact that Ireland didn’t deliver a standout performance. India’s downfall was largely self-inflicted.
Also read: Shreyas Iyer Tops Unwanted List As India's T20I Captain After Manchester Defeat
The inability to adapt to unfamiliar conditions exposed flaws in a team that has no scarcity of talent.
The typical IPL mindset of aggressive stroke-making, which thrives on flat Indian surfaces, proved ineffective on Belfast’s slow, two-paced pitches. The batters required timing, not power, to score.
Rather than recognising the conditions, rotating the strike and building partnerships, the batters continued to swing for the boundary, leading to soft dismissals and middle-order collapses in both matches.
India were chasing in both matches and failed on both occasions. In the opening T20I, they fell 34 runs short of a target of 183. The second game was a close call. Chasing 155, India lost by one run.
The misery does not end here!
England thumped India by 125 runs in the third T20 to lead the series by 2-0
Adding salt to the wounds, India suffered a humiliating 125-run defeat at the hands of England in the third T20I at Trent Bridge on Tuesday during the ongoing India Tour of England 2026.
Batting first, England posted a competitive 201/7 in their 20 overs, anchored by a stellar 70 off 44 balls from opener Phil Salt.
In response, led by Shreyas Iyer, the Indian batting order completely collapsed against a hostile pace attack. The tourists were bundled out for just 76 runs in 11.4 overs, marking India's heaviest defeat by runs in men's T20 International history.
The dominant win gives the hosts an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series following a rain-abandoned opener.
Now, for any Indian cricket fan, this slump is tough to swallow. It definitely sets off alarm bells to see India experience such a sudden downfall, probably on the verge of a back-to-back T20I series, right after one of the greatest T20I hot streaks in history.
When was the last time India suffered back-to-back series defeats in T20Is?
For the unaware, the loss in the 3rd IND vs ENG T20I 2026 marked the Men in Blue’s fifth consecutive match without a win for India in T20Is since winning the T20 World Cup, a streak that includes four defeats in completed matches.
It is the first time India have been winless for five consecutive men's T20Is. Their previous worst such streaks came in 2009 and 2021, when they suffered four successive defeats.
Moreover, the previous instance of India failing to win back-to-back bilateral series in men's T20Is was back in 2018-19. India lost the series to New Zealand and Australia in 2019, following a drawn series against Australia in late 2019.
Notably, the best outcome India could return in the ongoing series against England is a 2-2 draw, following their 0-2 defeat to Ireland, which marked the end of their streak of 13 consecutive series (or tournament) wins in this format and 12 consecutive unbeaten bilateral series.
As mentioned earlier, this shameful feat appears tough to digest for a team which is led by one of the best captains in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history and features a young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who had a time of his life, sweeping all batting records and awards in the IPL 2026. Along with the No. 1 ranked T20I batter, Ishan Kishan, and a six-hitting machine, Abhishek Sharma.
Also read: India’s Biggest Defeats In T20Is By Margin Of Runs
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