One of the biggest cricket upsets of 2026 took place on Friday as reigning T20 World Cup champions India were beaten by Ireland in the first of their two-match T20I series.
Led by new captain Shreyas Iyer, India’s batting flattered to deceive, as they were bowled out for 148 and ended up losing by 34 runs. Former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh blasted the Indian team for taking the match too lightly, stating that the players had treated the tour of Ireland as a “picnic”.
“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 ,” Sadagoppan Ramesh said, speaking on his YouTube channel, as quoted by The Indian Express.
With a five-match T20I series against England to come, Ramesh stated that Team India had not taken the two-match T20I series against Ireland seriously.
“The Ireland series was not even originally scheduled. It was like a pickle to the main course, which was England. But India embarrassingly 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,” Ramesh added.
Ramesh further elaborated on why the result was so shocking, explaining that India had recently won the T20 World Cup 2026, and then their players had also been in action in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“Yes, even an elephant occasionally slips up. But how can it happen against 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 inexplicable,” he further said.
Ireland posted 182 after being put into bat by Shreyas Iyer, and India were then bundled out for just 148. Apart from Harshit Rana (three wickets) and Abhishek Sharma (49 off 20), no other Indian player had a game to write home about.
India take on Ireland in the second T20I on Sunday, June 28, with Gautam Gambhir hoping to prevent a first T20I series defeat as India’s head coach.