‘They thought it was a picnic’: Ex-cricketer cries at Team India after Ireland shock | Cricket News
Former Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh launched a scathing criticism Team IndiaThe approach follows their 34-run defeat to Ireland in the opening T20I on Friday, accusing the visitors of taking the hosts too lightly and paying the price for their complacency.India’s batting collapsed while chasing 183, with the Shreyas Iyer-led side bowled out for 148 before completing their allotted 20 overs. The result also marked Ireland’s first win over India in all international formats.Ramesh felt the defeat was rooted in overconfidence, suggesting that India had mentally shifted focus to the upcoming England series instead of respecting their Irish opponents. He credited Ireland for executing their plans intelligently, particularly using bigger boundaries and peppering the Indian batsmen with short bowling.“Ireland deserves praise for using bigger boundaries and testing the Indian batsmen out with the short delivery. It was clear that India played the match casually. They thought that the Ireland series was a picnic tour, they would win easily, and they were serious only about the England series. But Ireland taught India a lesson saying that this is not a picnic place,” Ramesh said on his YouTube channel.India struggled throughout the chase, with only Abhishek Sharma make a significant contribution. The left-handed opener smashed 49 off just 20 deliveries, while the rest of the batting line-up, including the captain Shreyas Iyerfailed to make an impact. Iyer’s stay at the crease lasted just seven balls.Continuing his criticism, Ramesh described the Ireland series as an unexpected addition to India’s schedule but insisted it could never justify the performance.“The Ireland series was not even originally planned. It was like a pickle to the main dish, which was England. But embarrassing India could not handle the spice of the pickle, which is Ireland. Regardless of what excuses can be cooked for this, it is a shocking and terrible defeat for Team India. Overconfidence is never healthy, and that is why India’s story ended last night. India should be confident but not overconfident,” he added.Ramesh also called the defeat unacceptable as India entered the series as the T20 World Cup champions. I asked how a team that had spent months playing top-level T20 cricket, including the World Cup and IPL, could fail so badly against Ireland.“Yes, even an elephant occasionally slips up. But how can it happen against Ireland? This is a shocker, especially for a team whose last T20 match was the final of a World Cup. After a month of T20 cricket in the World Cup, all the Indian players have played another 3 months of IPL. To play 4 months of continuous T20 cricket, and then “lost to the Irish T20 is unexplasable.The former batsman also pointed to India’s sloppy fielding as another major reason behind the defeat, highlighting that repeated dropped catches allowed Ireland to post a challenging total of 180-plus. I also argued that the Impact Player rule in the IPL allowed some players to mask deficiencies on the field, something that is not possible in international cricket.“India have played surprisingly poor cricket. They have dropped catches from the T20 World Cup to the IPL till yesterday. They always seem to drop high catches. In the IPL, you can only bat or bowl and hide your field through the Impact Player option. But in international cricket, you have to be a good fielder to be in the 11. Many Impact players have escaped just for the IPL Impact.”
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