India succumbed to another T20I defeat at the hands of England to lose the five-match T20I series by a 4-0 margin. Saturday’s loss by 56 runs meant that the Men in Blue are winless under new T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, having lost four matches in England (with one match being a wash out) after two defeats on the tour of Ireland. The twin series sweeps meant that India were overtaken by England as the world’s no 1 T20I team, with India losing the No 1 rank for the first time in four years.
India’s struggles on Saturday started even before the toss, after the team was delayed in reaching the stadium due to traffic jam at Southampton. Iyer won another toss, his seventh successive correct call, and opted to bowl first. But at the toss, Iyer made the announcement that Sanju Samson was being brought into the XI in place of 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (who played three games in the series and managed 42 runs).
“I personally feel that we’ve seen almost everything in this series and also the one which we played before,” Iyer said, shrugging off the traffic delay. “So, another challenge, another day altogether.”
When the game started, veteran England opener Jos Buttler smashed 131 in 64 balls, while captain Harry Brook piled on an unbeaten 95 off 45 deliveries as the hosts posted a target of 258. This was only the 35-year-old Buttler’s second T20I hundred and his career-best knock. Buttler and Brook added 233 runs for the second wicket, which is now a record partnership for any wicket in the history of T20Is and set England on course to end India’s 1601-day reign at the top of ICC’s T20I rankings. Brook smashed his half-century off just 19 balls.
Ishan Kishan (56 off 35 balls) and Tilak Verma (53 off 25) showed some fight back in the chase, but India fell short at the end.
Iyer, India’s top runscorer in the series with 218 runs, fell for 28 runs while Samson, called back into the team after a three-game absence, managed 27 runs.
(With inputs from PTI)
