Shreyas Iyer. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
India captain Shreyas Iyer minced no words after his team’s crushing 125-run defeat to England in the third T20 International, describing the performance as ‘atrocious’ and admitting such a heavy loss was ‘not acceptable’.
Under Iyer, India is yet to win a T20 International, and Tuesday’s (July 7, 2026) outing marked an abject surrender as they were bowled out for 76 in just 11.4 overs while chasing 202 to suffer their biggest defeat in the format in terms of runs.
“It was atrocious, and losing by that margin is not acceptable. First things first, we have to accept the loss and go back to drawing board,” Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The win handed England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series ahead of the fourth T20I in Bristol on Thursday (July 9, 2026), and the final in Southampton on Saturday (July 11, 2026). The opening match was a wash-out. Iyer felt that the bowling unit shouldn’t have gone for 200 on this Trent Bridge track.
“I don’t think it was a 200 wicket. We lost four wickets in the powerplay and that itself pushed us back. You can plan a lot but once you come to the ground you need to adapt. Try to figure out what is the right length. I felt the hard length was tough [to hit] and we didn’t execute,” he said.
Iyer believes that dwelling on failures would be of no use but at the same time the players need to think about making an impact which is paramount.
“We need to comeback strong and not dwell too much about the past. Every individual has to think and see how they can contribute to the team,” Iyer said.
England skipper Harry Brook was happy that Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer, who took seven wickets between them, were fantastic in execution.
“I thought the communication and the plans going into the second innings was perfect. Bowling top of the stumps was tough to score. That’s the conversation we had. We recognised early that it was a tough wicket to score from the top of the stumps,” Brook said.
Published – July 08, 2026 12:39 pm IST
