This is not my team. This is not the Indian team that, just a couple of months ago, won the T20 World Cup. In the space of just two weeks, that same team has been whitewashed by Ireland and England.
What just happened? Could anyone believe this — especially if you are an Indian cricket team fan? A 2-0 loss to Ireland, followed by a 4-0 loss to England. India have been whitewashed in back-to-back T20I series. What a shame. This is really hard to watch.
This morning, news broke that the BCCI will “look into” Team India’s performance in the Ireland and England T20I series. But why? When we pick players based on IPL performances, aren’t those supposed to be our best players? So why do we need a review after the fact — shouldn’t we have picked the best team to begin with?
Why no Bhuvneshwar Kumar, after the best bowling performance of his career in IPL 2026? Our bowling has looked clueless, unsure of where to invest its energy. We picked Prasidh Krishna over Mohammed Siraj — Siraj, who has made this team proud time and again. To be honest, apart from Jasprit Bumrah, not a single bowler in this side looks like a genuine wicket-taking threat, even though the pitches have been good and helpful for fast bowlers.
And what about the spinners? We dropped Kuldeep Yadav. We picked Ravi Bishnoi, who has now been around for three to four years and still hasn’t found his best form. And then there’s Washington Sundar — a man who has been part of the Indian setup for five to six years now, and we still don’t know what he really is: a batter, a bowler, or an all-rounder who does neither consistently.
We won the T20 World Cup just a couple of months ago. So why so many sudden changes? Are we building toward the T20 World Cup 2028, or the 2028 Olympics? Here’s the thing — if the T20 World Cup 2028 comes right after the IPL 2028 season, players will be picked based on their IPL 2028 form, not on how they’re performing today. So what’s the rush?
Look at what Gautam Gambhir and the management have done with Sanju Samson. Just a couple of months ago, he was Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup. Those innings of his may well be the reason we became world champions — if he hadn’t scored those runs, we might not have won the title at all. And yet, a player like that gets dropped after struggling for just three innings, in a series where virtually every batter struggled. Samson was the first player left out of the team. Why do we need so many changes, so suddenly?
The same question applies to captaincy. Why isn’t Suryakumar Yadav leading Team India in T20Is? Why is he not even in the squad? Do we really think Shreyas Iyer is safe as captain — because if he loses one more series, will he lose the captaincy too? So again, why the hurry?
It’s the same story with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Everyone was convinced he’d walk into the playing XI — social media was full of it every single day. Then came three flop innings in a row, and he was dropped from the team as well. How is a young player supposed to feel comfortable and play his natural game under these conditions? Will he ever get the security to express himself fearlessly, or will he always be one bad series away from the axe?
This is where Gautam Gambhir and the current setup seem to be too influenced by social media narratives and instant reactions. We saw the same pattern with the news leaks around Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli before they retired.
I hope the BCCI takes a real, honest look at all this, puts a stop to these patterns, and helps Team India find its way back to the top — because this team, and its fans, deserve better than knee-jerk decisions.