“They said this is no picnic spot”

Former opener Sadagoppan Ramesh slammed Team India for their shocking loss to Ireland in the opening T20I in Belfast on June 26. The Men in Blue had won their previous eight T20 outings against Ireland.

However, the two-time defending world champions produced a disappointing display with both bat and ball. Ireland scored a competitive 182/9 in their 20 overs and bowled a dominant Indian batting lineup out for a mere 148 in the penultimate over.

Reacting to Team India’s shocking defeat to minnows Ireland, Ramesh said on his YouTube channel:

“Ireland deserve praise for using the bigger boundaries and testing the Indian batters out with the short delivery. It was clear that India played the match casually. They thought the Ireland series was a picnic tour, which they’ll win easily and were serious only about the England series. But Ireland taught India a lesson by saying this is no picnic spot.

He added:

“The Ireland series was not even originally scheduled. It was like a pickle to the main course, which was England. But India embarassingly couldn’t handle the spice of the pickle, which is Ireland. Irrespective of what excuses can be cooked up for this, it’s a shocking and terrible defeat for Team India. Overconfidence is never healthy and it’s because of that, India’s story was over last night. India must be confident but not overconfident.”

The series opener against Ireland was the first for Team India under newly-appointed skipper Shreyas Iyer. The defeat leaves India in a must-win situation in the second and final T20I of the two-match series at the same venue on Sunday, June 28.

“To play 4 months of continuous T20 cricket and then lose to Ireland is unexplainable” – S Ramesh

Sadagoppan Ramesh believes the loss to Ireland is even more shocking, given the Indian players’ string of T20 games over the past few months. After capturing a second consecutive T20 World Cup title at home, almost all the Indian players played the 2026 IPL season for over two months before the ongoing Ireland series.

“Yes, even an elephant occasionally slips up. But how can it happen against an Ireland? This is a shocker, especially for a team whose last T20 match was the final of a World Cup. After a month of T20 cricket in the World Cup, all the Indian players played another 3 months of IPL. To play 4 months of continuous T20 cricket and then lose to Ireland is unexplainable,” said Ramesh (via the aforementioned source).

Ramesh also slammed India’s continued fielding and catching frailties, saying:

“India played shockingly poor cricket. They’ve been dropping catches from the T20 World Cup to the IPL to yesterday. They seem to always drop high catches. In the IPL, you can just bat or bowl and hide your fielding because of the Impact Player option. But in international cricket, you’ve to be a good fielder to be in the 11. Many players escaped in the IPL because of the Impact Player rule by just batting.”

Team India has not lost a bilateral T20I series in almost three years, with their last setback coming in the five-match affair in the West Indies in 2023.