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Former Team India cricketer and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) coach Dinesh Karthik exposed the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, due to which the team suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at the hands of England after a 2-0 defeat against Ireland.
Last night, Team India had a chance to save its face by winning the last match of the 5-match T20 series. There was hope until Jos Buttler and Harry Brook started a feast of runs in the middle of the park at Southampton.
Jos Buttler and Harry Brook sabotage the Indian bowling unit
When the first innings ended with England scoring 257 runs for only 3 wickets, the pre-match expectations were almost dashed. It was undeniable that Jos Buttler played very well to score 131 runs off 64 balls, but did the Indian cricket team do its best to prevent the batsman from scoring easily?
England captain Harry Brook returned after scoring unbeaten 95 runs in 45 balls. These two batsmen together hit 16 fours and 16 sixes. The staggering number of maximums was enough to separate the teams.
Dinesh Karthik criticized Shreyas Iyer for the team’s poor performance. Questioning the team combination, Karthik said that the team is lacking a good fifth bowler, who can bring stability in the middle phase of the innings.
Dinesh Karthik raised questions on team selection
While regular bowlers Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Singh did a good job with the new ball, the other bowlers had no answer against the aggressive pair of England batsmen. Prince Yadav and Axar Patel were the other full-time bowlers in the match for India. To support him, the team captained by Shreyas Iyer showed confidence in all-rounders like Shivam Dubey and Suryansh Shadege.
Suryansh Shedge, who played under Shreyas Iyer in the IPL for Punjab Kings, conceded 39 runs without taking any wicket in 3 overs, and Shivam Dubey, who was asked to bowl 19 overs.th In his first over of the innings, he gave away 22 runs while taking a couple of runs.
“Absolutely terrible strategy”: Dinesh Karthik criticizes Shreyas Iyer for poor captaincy
Through a video, Karthik told that keeping Suryansh Shedge or Shivam Dubey as the fifth bowler is a terrible strategy by captain Shreyas Iyer. Especially an over from Dubey, who did not bowl a single ball before bowling 19.th Overs when the batsmen were in the mood to score as many runs as possible.
“Look at India’s bowling performance: They hit 17 sixes, which is the second highest score ever. You don’t have a 5th bowling option; you are playing with only four bowlers. Your 5th bowling options are Shedge and Dubey; you don’t even trust Dubey to bowl, but you gave him the 19th over and he gave 22 runs,” Dinesh Karthik said.
He said, “You should have realized that if one of your four main bowlers was taken to the cleaners, who would step in as the fifth bowler? It was absolutely terrible strategy.”
Dinesh Karthik lashed out at captain Shreyas Iyer’s poor playing XI strategy.
“Look at India’s bowling performance, they hit 17 sixes, which is the second highest record ever. You don’t have a fifth bowling option, you are playing with only four bowlers. Your choice of fifth bowler… pic.twitter.com/jzEyoNmD87
– Indian Cricket (@navshar54008403) July 12, 2026