Former Indian cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh has launched a scathing criticism of Team IndiaAfter the tour suffered a 34-run defeat to Ireland in the opening T20I on Friday, they are criticizing the visitors for taking them too lightly and paying the price for their performance.India’s batting collapsed while chasing 183, the Shreyas Iyer-led side were bowled out for 148 before completing their allotted 20 overs. The result also marked Ireland’s first ever victory over India at any international level.Ramesh felt that the defeat was the result of overconfidence, suggesting that India had shifted their focus to the upcoming England series rather than respecting their Irish opponents. He praised Ireland for executing their plans smartly, especially by using wide boundaries and hitting the Indian batsmen with the short ball.“Ireland should be praised for using a big boundary and testing the Indian batsmen with a short delivery. It was clear that India played the game casually. They thought that the Ireland series was a picnic tour, they will win easily, and they were very confident about the England series. But Ireland taught India a lesson by saying that this is not a picnic place,” said Ramesh on his YouTube channel.India struggled in the chase, that’s all Abhishek Sharma to give something useful. The left-handed opener blasted 49 in just 20 matches, while the rest of the batsmen, including the captain. Shreyas Iyerfailed to act. Iyer’s stay at the crease took just seven balls.Continuing the criticism, Ramesh described the Irish series as an unexpected addition to the Indian series but insisted that he could not claim success.“Ireland’s list was not prepared in the first place. It was like a pickle to the main course, which was England. But India shamefully could not cope with the spices of the pickle, which is Ireland. Regardless of the reasons that can be cooked for this, it is a surprising and terrible defeat for Team India. Overconfidence is not good, and that’s because the India story ended last night. India should be self-reliant but not over-confident,” he added.Ramesh also termed the defeat as unacceptable considering that India entered the series as the reigning champions of the T20 World Cup. He asked how a team that spent months playing top-class T20 cricket, including the World Cup and IPL, could fall against Ireland.“Yes, even an elephant sometimes goes down. But how can it happen against Ireland? This is surprising, especially for a team whose last T20 game was the final of the World Cup. After a month of T20 cricket in the World Cup, all the Indian players played another 3 months of IPL. Playing 4 months of continuous T20 cricket,” said Ireland Ramexsh lost. “The former batsmen also pointed to India’s sloppy batting as another major reason for the victory, pointing out that repeated catches allowed Ireland to post a challenging 180 over. He also said that the Impact Player rule in the IPL has made some players not perform well in the game, which is not possible in international cricket.“India have played surprisingly poor cricket. They have bowled from T20 World Cup to IPL till yesterday. They always seem to bowl more. In IPL, you can just bat or bowl and hide in your field because of Impact Player selection.
