Former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh gave a scathing criticism Team Indiaapproach after their 34-run defeat to Ireland in Friday’s T20I opener, accusing the visitors of taking the hosts too lightly and paying the price for their complacency.India’s batting collapsed while chasing 183 and the Shreyas Iyer-led side were 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 that the defeat was rooted in overconfidence, suggesting that India had mentally focused on the upcoming series in England instead of respecting their Irish opponents. He credited Ireland for executing their plans smartly, particularly by using wider boundaries and seasoning the Indian batsmen with short-gap bowling.“Ireland deserves credit for using bigger boundaries and testing the Indian batsmen with the short delivery. It was clear that India were playing the game casually. They thought the Ireland series was an excursion tour, that they would win easily, and they were only serious about the England series. But Ireland taught India a lesson by saying this is no picnic,” Ramesh said on his YouTube channel.India struggled throughout the chase, with just Abhishek Sharma making a significant contribution. The left-handed opener scored 49 off just 20 deliveries, while the rest of the batting line-up, including the captain Shreyas Iyerfailed to influence. 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 that it could never justify the performance.“The Ireland series was not even originally scheduled. It was like a pickle for the main course, which was England. But India was embarrassingly unable to cope with the spice of the pickle, which is Ireland. No matter what excuses can be made for this, this is a shocking and terrible defeat for the Indian team. Overconfidence is never healthy and that’s why the India story ended last night. India needs to be confident, but not too confident,” he added.Ramesh also termed the defeat as unacceptable considering India entered the series as the reigning T20 World Cup winners. He wondered how a side that had spent months playing top-level T20 cricket, including the World Cup and the IPL, could falter like that against Ireland.“Yes, even an elephant stumbles occasionally. But how can this happen against Ireland? This is shocking, especially for a team whose last T20 match was the World Cup final. After a month of T20 cricket in the World Cup, all the Indian players played 3 more months of IPL. To play 4 months of continuous T20 cricket and then lose to Ireland is inexplicable,” Ramesh said.The former batsman also pointed to India’s sloppy fielding as another major reason for the defeat, pointing out that repeated lost catches allowed Ireland to post a challenging total in excess of 180. He further claimed that the Impact Player rule in the IPL has allowed some players to cover up shortcomings on the field, something that is not possible in international cricket.“India have played shockingly bad cricket. They have been dropping catches from T20 World Cup to IPL till yesterday. They always seem to drop big catches. In IPL you can just bat or bowl and hide your field because of the Impact Player option. But in international cricket you have to be a good player to be in the 11. Many players have escaped in IPL because of the Impact Player rule by batting only.”
