India’s first-ever bilateral T20I series defeat to England exposed shortcomings in the team’s middle order, all-round depth and fielding, with former India batting coach Abhishek Nayar and former Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara backing captain Shreyas Iyer while calling for patience and clarity in the team’s rebuilding process.
Speaking on JioHotstar’s Match Centre Live after England completed a historic 4-0 series win with a 56-run victory in the fifth and final T20I in Southampton, Nayar said India’s lack of contributions from the middle order and poor fielding proved costly throughout the series.
“England had batters at numbers five, six, seven and eight who contributed. When it comes to India, you had Tilak at number five and Shivam Dube at number six, but they haven’t contributed as much as England’s middle order. Yes, there is a failure at the top of the order, but India also doesn’t have enough depth when it comes to their all-rounders, and that is a huge concern.
“The fielding has also been very poor. You can accept that a young side doesn’t perform well with the bat and the ball, but not fielding well is unacceptable. In the shorter format, fielding wins you games. You do make errors sometimes, but throughout the series, India has been very poor in the field, and that’s a big concern,” Nayar said.
He said successive series defeats would give Iyer an opportunity to reflect on the team’s direction and shape it according to his vision.
“When you give someone the mantle of taking over from a champion side, you also want to give him the liberty of picking his side. The first time you become captain, you don’t get the liberty of saying, ‘This is where I want to take the team.’ You first handle the team and then see what you need to do with it.
“Post these two series, he’ll have time to reflect, understand what he requires from this team, how he needs them to play and what he needs from the support staff. So, it will be harsh to say that Shreyas Iyer’s future is in jeopardy as a captain,” he added.
Backing Iyer, Pujara said it was too early to judge the captain and stressed the need to give him ownership of the T20I side.
“It’s been a really hard series, and you can point fingers at Shreyas Iyer, but the more rational thing is to understand what he requires from this team. Give him the ownership of feeling like this is his team, like Harry Brook does right now, Ben Stokes did with the England Test team, or Rohit Sharma did for India when he was the captain, or Virat Kohli did, especially with the Test team. Then it’s a better place to judge him.
“Even Shubman Gill, when he first became the ODI captain, didn’t win a few series first up. As you get into your own, you build confidence and the team you envision. It’s still early days, there’s no panic button, but there needs to be clarity as to where this team is going,” Pujara said.
On India’s struggles against the short ball, particularly with an eye on the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in 2028, Pujara said the England series had served as a timely reality check.
“This series has been an eye-opener for them. Even when they played in Ireland and now in England, very rarely do you remember in a T20 format where teams have constantly targeted you with short balls. Almost every batter has been targeted with that. It just tells you that England were better prepared than the Indian team and most importantly, India failed to adapt.
“I think Australian conditions will be different. India has predominantly done well in Australia because the ball actually comes on. There is not a lot of spongy bounce like they’ve felt in England. It’s a good wake-up call. It’s a good reflection of what this team needs to do to win abroad. But I think come the World Cup, you’ll find a more equipped team. And there’ll be a lot of batters who’ll go back and start working on the short ball immediately,” he added.
Pujara, Nayar back Shreyas Iyer after England’s 4-0 T20I series loss
