India’s T20 cricket team has hit a rough patch. On Friday, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia offered his take: “This is not something abnormal and can happen in international cricket. We consider it as a purely bad phase.” The board will conduct a full review of the squad once the England tour wraps up on July 19.<\/p>\n
The scale of the problem is hard to ignore. Thursday’s loss to England\u2014by nine wickets\u2014marked the fourth straight defeat. Five losses in a row now. England has already secured an unbeatable 3-0 series lead with one match still to play. Before this, India were whitewashed 2-0 by Ireland just last month.<\/p>\n
The losses have been lopsided. Nottingham saw India collapse to 76\u2014their worst T20 defeat, losing by 125 runs. In Bristol, India posted 158-7, but England chased it down with nine wickets in hand and six overs remaining. It’s a far cry from March, when India won the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Gautam Gambhir’s team has been stretched thin. Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have sat out due to workload and injury management. The squad has also turned to youth: 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his debut, scoring 14, 13 and 15 across his first three innings,.<\/p>\n
India face England again on Saturday in Southampton for the fifth T20. A three-match ODI series follows the T20s. Both tournaments now feel like damage control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India’s T20 team faces a BCCI review after losing five straight matches, including a series defeat to England and a whitewash in Ireland. The board will convene after the England tour ends on July 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-cricket"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n