Abdication of the throne — the need for the India T20 team to hit refresh and rejig

As far as reigns go, this will be hard to match. Impossible, one is tempted to say, given that the said reign was in the most unpredictable of formats. For 1,605 days, from 20 February 2022 to 11 July 2026, India ruled the Twenty20 International landscape with an iron fist, occupying the top perch in the ICC rankings, stacking up an enviable record that encompassed two T20 World Cup crowns (with a solitary defeat the sole, easily delible blot) and an unquestioned dominance that stemmed from fearlessness and the foresight to stack their sides with the personnel that would translate the mantra of intrepidness to glorious reality.

All good things in life must come to an end, however. Nothing is permanent, most certainly not ruling the roost in any of the three cricketing formats. That’s the brutal truth, but the manner in which India abdicated the throne left a sour taste in the mouth.

England, imperious England – would have said this even a decade back in white-ball internationals? – not just grabbed the throne from India, they positively brushed them aside, reducing them to a blubbering wreck that seemed to be weighed down by the pressure of their own expectations and by the heavy burden that one unchecked defeat after another is certain to impose.Who would have imagined this scenario a fortnight back?

Who would have indeed? Ireland first, for two matches that were supposed to be glorified practice sessions. Then England, over a five-game showdown largely predicted to be tight, tall-scoring contests with the visitors holding the edge because of their breathtaking batting riches, on full view during IPL 2026.

There were tall scores alright, but all of them came from the blazing bats of the opposition. Phil Salt, out of form? No matter.

Jos Buttler, struggling for rhythm? Hey, we are here. Harry Brook, already in red-hot touch?

Help yourself to more, skipper. India were supposed to be the main act, instead they served as the obliging support cast on which first Ireland and then England gorged, consigning the (then) No. 1 side in the world to six defeats in seven matches.

Perhaps only because the one that didn’t end in a loss was abandoned midway through.India have harped on transition, on a new but not yet exciting phase in this format. Admittedly, they do have a new skipper – Shreyas Iyer wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest nightmares that his stint at the top would begin this disastrously – and were without a couple of influential performers in Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.

But how often in the past have they not made light of these situations? How often have they not eked out extraordinary efforts from the not-so-celebrated stars-in-the-making? To say that they lost 0-2 to Ireland and were routed 4-0 by England just because Bumrah and Pandya weren’t around will be disrespecting the skills and the mettle of those who were in the mix.

India were outplayed; they were lame and timid and limp and almost fearful, the antithesis of the philosophy they have espoused for so long.Doom-and-gloom time? For now, definitely, no matter that India will bounce back strongly because that’s what they do.

That’s what they have done. But they find themselves in uncharted territory so far as the 20-over game is concerned, and it will be interesting to see how they rouse themselves, how they respond to the scent of battle next time around.England were fabulous, that can’t be denied.

Where Ireland hoped to contest on even terms, England knew they were on an equal footing, at the very least. True, their familiarity with conditions helped, as did their knowledge of the Indian players with whom several in the English set-up interacted for more than two months just a little while back in the IPL, either from the same dressing or on opposite sides of the fence. But by the same token, the Indians knew what to expect from a Buttler or a Jofra Archer, and have had plenty of experience of playing both in England and against the likes of Brook and Sam Curran.

Once they succumbed unexpectedly to Ireland, India became diffident, almost second-guessing themselves. They didn’t play the conditions well enough, they left their smarts behind at home and tried to adopt the same approach while wildly hoping for different results. England were clinical and ruthless, India traversed the other end of this spectrum and therefore it was no surprise that they were comprehensively put in their place.

The negatives are piling up in the Gautam Gambhir-Ajit Agarkar coach-chief selector era, and while there is unlikely to be any earth-shattering decision when a review meeting is held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India at the conclusion of the three-match ODI series on July 19, a demand – a strident, relentless demand – for accountability will not be out of place.Meaningful runsShreyas made up for a poor start with the bat in Ireland by stacking up meaningful runs in England, extending his IPL form to the world stage despite coming in cold to the T