Two images summed up India’s attitude towards Ireland. One, their captain Shreyas Iyer’s disdain at the end of the first loss by 34 runs. Swaying his hips casually when being interviewed at the presentation ceremony, he seemed more focused on the poor start to his captaincy career than on giving the opponents any credit. There was no mention of Ireland’s effort at all. No “They played well and deserved the win”, not even a simple “well done”.
By the second loss, someone seems to have spoken to him. This time there was acknowledgment that actually two teams had played the match (and only one had won). Sport is a great leveller, and if you disrespect either the game or your opponent, it has a way of letting you know.
Puerile
The second set of images were the promos on Indian television. This is a recent phenomenon where channels whip up frenzy by whipping the opponents in language and image that is incredibly puerile and downright embarrassing. Neither the game nor its players nor indeed the fans deserve to be treated with such contempt. Not funny, not clever, and in keeping with a particular brand of jingoism that suggests we are the greatest in everything we do (not just in sport), and need to beat our drum on every occasion. The best don’t need such accompaniment.
India’s attitude suggested the series would be a walk in the park, they were doing Ireland a favour by playing them, they could have fielded their third team and won. No one articulated any of this, of course, but the mindset was clear — condescending, dismissive, suggesting that merely to turn up was to win.
Obviously Ireland were more comfortable playing at home and knew exactly what to do. Their medium pacers bowled the right length, slightly short, to get batters to play square of the wicket where the boundaries were farther away. They outplayed India and deserved the win in the “greatest weekend in Irish cricket,” as someone put it.
Conditions were different, not impossible. India are the reigning world champions, and for champions every venue should be a home ground. Condescension is a cousin of unprofessionalism. Things don’t just happen in sport, they have to be made to happen. Ireland were more professional, better led and had a set of coaches more keenly attuned to the needs of the competition.
Question the support staff
The question India will be asking is not if Vaibhav Sooryavanshi should have played (he should have), but what the coaching staff was up to. India didn’t lose because of their television channels or their own attitude. They lost because the coaches took a while to figure out where to bowl and how to bat on a ground where the straight boundaries were shorter than the square ones. The batters were either in too much of a hurry, too keen to lay out their six-hitting wares or too unwilling to believe that any team could actually beat them.
Wickets in Ireland are not like those in the IPL which are consistently batter-friendly. Technique and temperament are constantly questioned. Perhaps India missed the range of batters like K.L. Rahul or Shubman Gill who are world class whatever the colour of the ball.
Ireland are ranked eleventh in the world, India are No. 1. Cricket is not Ireland’s main sport. In the Irish Times newspaper, it figures behind Gaelic Games, World Cup Football, rugby, golf, and racing. Their historic win appears under ‘More Sport’.
Where do India go from here? There is no need to panic as they arrive in England for the first of five T20s. Skipper Shreyas’ form as well as that of the openers is a worry. Still, the new captain needs to be given a decent run in the job. Redemption might be just round the corner.
National coach Gautam Gambhir has now presided over two home whitewashes in Test cricket, against New Zealand and South Africa, and now this. Perhaps it is time to split the coach’s job, and have different coaches for Test cricket and the white ball game. Coaching is a high pressure job and coaches need to be rested in the same way that fast bowlers are today.
Published – July 01, 2026 12:30 am IST
