Former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh launched a scathing criticism of Team India’s approach after 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 maiden victory over India across all international formats.Ramesh felt the defeat was rooted in overconfidence, suggesting India had mentally shifted focus to the upcoming England series instead of respecting their Irish opponents. He credited Ireland for executing their plans smartly, particularly by using the larger boundaries and peppering the Indian batters with short-pitched bowling.“Ireland deserves praise for using the bigger boundaries and testing the Indian batters out with the short delivery. It was clear that India played the match casually. They thought 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 by saying this is no picnic spot,” Ramesh said on his YouTube channel.India struggled throughout the chase, with only Abhishek Sharma making a meaningful contribution. The left-handed opener blasted 49 off just 20 deliveries, while the rest of the batting lineup, including captain Shreyas Iyer, failed to make an impact. Iyer’s stay at the crease lasted only seven balls.Continuing his criticism, Ramesh described the Ireland series as an unexpected addition to India’s schedule but insisted that could never justify the performance.“The Ireland series was not even originally scheduled. It was like a pickle to the main course, which was England. But India embarrassingly couldn’t handle the spice of the pickle, which is Ireland. Irrespective of what excuses can be cooked up for this, it’s a shocking and terrible defeat for Team India. Overconfidence is never healthy, and it’s because of that that India’s story was over last night. India must be confident but not overconfident,” he added.Ramesh also called the defeat unacceptable considering India entered the series as the reigning T20 World Cup champions. He questioned how a side that had spent months playing top-level T20 cricket, including the World Cup and the IPL, could falter 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 played another 3 months of IPL. To play 4 months of continuous T20 cricket and then lose to Ireland is unexplainable,” said Ramesh.The former batter 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 in excess of 180. He further argued that the Impact Player rule in the IPL has enabled some players to mask deficiencies in the field, something that is not possible in international cricket.“India played shockingly poor cricket. They’ve been dropping catches from the T20 World Cup to the IPL to yesterday. They seem to always drop high catches. In the IPL, you can just bat or bowl and hide your fielding because of the Impact Player option. But in international cricket, you have to be a good fielder to be in the 11. Many players escaped in the IPL because of the Impact Player rule by just batting.”
