India suffered a shocking 2-0 defeat in the T20I series against Ireland, which will be the first time they have lost a T20I series against an Irish team. After dominating the IPL on the batting surface, India’s young batting line-up had no trouble adjusting to the Irish style as the hosts beat them in both matches. The result marked yet another defeat for Gautam Gambhir in his tenure as head coach.Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the defeat exposed the flaws in the Indian team and not just their execution. He also said that India have over-relied on all-rounders and now need a specialist middle-order batsman, and also explains why Shubman Gill should return to the T20I setup. Referring to X, Manjrekar wrote: “It was too little…under Gambhir, it’s too much. ‘Arounder’. India need to hit the middle-order, pronto!”
Manjrekar wants Gill back in T20Is
In the post-match discussion, Manjrekar also explained that Indian batsmen need to develop skills to excel on pitches that provide support to the players, instead of relying on the batting rhythms they are accustomed to at home and in the IPL. He cited Shubman Gill as a good example of a batsman who can excel in such conditions and supported the Indian ODI captain to return to the T20I format.“Shubman Gill… for people to understand, this is a guy who is a T20 batsman now and he had a successful IPL. I’m not talking about captaincy, but these are the players you want to slowly bring to T20 cricket because they have a bit of depth in situations like this and they are used to it, as we saw when he played in England and overseas.“This is Shubman Gill’s way forward. It won’t happen immediately, but I think gradually you will start to see him coming back into India’s T20 plans,” he added.India will have the chance to make a quick comeback when they start the five-match T20I against England on July 1, with the team looking to put Ireland’s disappointing tour behind them.
| Equality | Dates | Place | Time (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and T20I | July 1, 2026 | Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street | 10:00 p.m |
| 2 and T20I | July 4, 2026 | Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester | 7:00 p.m |
| 3 and T20Is | July 7, 2026 | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 10:00 p.m |
| 4 and T20I | July 9, 2026 | Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol | 10:00 p.m |
| 5 and T20Is | July 11, 2026 | The Rose Bowl, Southampton | 7:00 p.m |
| 1 ODI | July 14, 2026 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | 3:30 p.m |
| 2 YES | July 16, 2026 | Sophia Gardens, Cardiff | 5:30 p.m |
| 3 YES | July 19, 2026 | Lord, London | 3:30 p.m |
