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India National Cricket Team T20I captain Shreyas Iyer pulled no punches and described the record loss to England National Cricket Team in the third game of the five-match series as 'atrocious'.
Speaking to Eoin Morgan after India's record 125-run loss to England, Shreyas Iyer broke his character and openly expressed his frustration over his team's inability to perform well in the must-win encounter at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer has joined Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni with an amazing toss record in T20Is.
India's biggest T20I defeats continue worrying trend under new regime
India suffered their heaviest-ever defeat in T20I cricket after England handed them a crushing 125-run loss in the third T20I at Trent Bridge. Chasing a daunting 202, the visitors were bundled out for just 76 in 11.4 overs as the batting lineup collapsed against Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue.
The defeat not only gave England a 2-0 lead in the five-match series but also etched India's name into an unwanted record book. The 125-run margin surpassed their previous biggest T20I defeat, an 80-run loss to New Zealand in Wellington in 2019. More significantly, four of India's five biggest defeats by runs in T20Is have now come since December 2025, highlighting an alarming pattern.
India's biggest defeats by runs in T20Is now read: 125 runs against England at Trent Bridge (2026), 80 runs against New Zealand at Wellington (2019), 76 runs against South Africa in Ahmedabad (2026), 51 runs against South Africa in Mullanpur (2025), and 50 runs against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam (2026).
What makes the latest loss particularly concerning is the manner of the collapse. India elected to field first but failed to contain England, conceding 201/7 despite early breakthroughs. In reply, wickets fell at regular intervals, with only Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (13), Ishan Kishan (13) and Abhishek Sharma (10) reaching double figures.
The middle order offered little resistance as India lost all ten wickets for just 76, raising fresh questions about the team's consistency against top-quality pace attacks and its ability to recover after early setbacks.
Why Shreyas Iyer described India's T20I defeat to England as 'atrocious'
When Shreyas Iyer came for the post-match presentation ceremony, former England skipper Eoin Morgan asked him how he would assess the team’s performance.
Replying to this, Shreyas Iyer labelled the loss as 'atrocious' and added that losing by a colossal margin was not at all acceptable.
"I think it was atrocious. I couldn’t use a better word, honestly. Losing by such a big margin is definitely not acceptable. First things first, I feel that we need to accept this loss and completely go back to the drawing board and see what we did wrong. Looking at the wicket, I don’t think that it was a 200 wicket, first of all, to start with," the India National Cricket Team skipper stated.
"But other than that, the way we batted, we lost four (five) wickets in the powerplay. I think that itself did create the momentum, and definitely I feel that we lost over there. So, we’ve got to go back to the drawing board."
'Atrocious' is an adjective used to describe something that is either exceptionally bad in quality or shockingly cruel and wicked. Shreyas Iyer described India's T20I defeat to England as 'atrocious' because they were bundled for a low total while chasing a target that initially looked in their grasp and suffered their biggest ever defeat in the format just months after lifting the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 trophy under the former captain Suryakumar Yadav.
I think when you’re chasing 200, you need to pace up your innings - Shreyas Iyer
When asked about India's plans leading into the game, Shreyas Iyer stated that they had things planned, but after entering the ground, it was all about execution, in which they badly failed. He said:
"I think you can plan a lot once you’re there in the team meeting, but once you come to the ground, you need to adapt as quickly as possible and try to figure out what lengths are important to bowl on a particular wicket.
"Like this (pitch) today, the hard lengths were helping the bowlers pretty well. I think we didn’t execute that much. And even in our batting, I think when you’re chasing 200, you need to pace up your innings. You need to have a set pattern of how you’re going to go about that innings. So, we fell a bit short in terms of that. So definitely, execution was awful."
The Indian captain also had no shame in admitting that they played 'awful cricket' but was hopeful of a strong comeback in the upcoming matches.
"Absolutely. As you mentioned, it’s a great opportunity to come back strong. Not dwell too much about what’s happened in the past. We’ve played awful cricket for sure, but a lot of learnings from it as well. Players have to start thinking about how to basically make an impact or create that momentum towards the team.
"So definitely every individual has to think by himself and see how they can win the matches and take that sort of responsibility."
Notably, India can no longer win the series as they are currently 0-2 down with two matches remaining.
