Shreyas Iyer was brutally honest when speaking about Team India’s miserable bowling performance in the fifth and final T20I against England. The visiting side’s bowlers were smashed everywhere by Jos Buttler and Harry Brook as England raced to 257/3 in 20 overs. It wasn’t just the bowling which was poor, but there were also plenty of dropped catches. Dube dropped Brook in the sixth over. Meanwhile, Suryansh Shedge dropped Buttler in the 16th. Brook was once again dropped in the final over.
After Phil Salt’s early dismissal, Buttler and Brook went berserk, smashing Arshdeep Singh for 15 runs in the fifth over, followed by Prince Yadav leaking 17 in the sixth. The pair once again went after Prince in the ninth over, clobbering him for 13 runs, followed by a 25-run blitz against Axar Patel in the tenth.
In the 14th over, Suryansh Shedge was destroyed for 24 runs, and Prince once again leaked 21 in the 15th. Axar was sent to the stands for 20 runs in the 16th over, and then Shivam Dube leaked 22 in the 19th.
‘We could have probably bluffed’
Speaking after the match, Iyer was asked if his bowlers could have done better with their choice of deliveries. The India captain said, “Yes, absolutely. I feel that especially on this track where it was a belter, we could have probably bluffed, you know, honestly speaking. But also we dropped a couple of catches which probably cost us a bit in the total. And we would have been chasing around 220 to 225. That would have been probably one of the best chases we could have done. But unfortunate that we didn’t get that opportunity. But hopefully as we mentioned earlier, great learning.”
Meanwhile, Buttler slammed 131 runs off 64 balls, packed with 12 fours and eight sixes. Brook remained unbeaten with a 45-ball 95*, smashing four fours and eight maximums.
Hailing their record partnership, Iyer said, “Yes, I think it was sensational batting by Buttler. And then Harry came in and he changed the momentum towards them. So that partnership definitely steadied the ship for them. And we dropped a couple of catches. I think that could have changed the rhythm of the game. But nonetheless, great learning. And I’m sure that boys would be aware next time when they come here.”
On his lessons from the series, Iyer said, “There’s a lot to take out, honestly speaking. Firstly, the conditions, the awareness, the adaptation to the wickets. I feel that every ground we played at, this was probably the best wicket we played on so far. So you saw even when we batted today, the approach was completely different. And it’s all about adaptation, I feel. The conditions changed, kept changing right from match one. But yeah, as professionals, we need to learn and be aware of all these conditions.”
