After the Hardik Pandya-led team lost a five-match T20I series to the West Indies by a score of 2-3, former bowler Venkatesh Prasad criticised the Indian establishment, saying that they lacked hunger and fire and were living in delusion.
By defeating India by eight wickets in the fifth and final T20I in Florida on Sunday, the West Indies ended a six-year losing streak and completed the five-game series in grand fashion.
India lost this T20I series to the Caribbean team for the first time since 2017. The Asian team suffered their first series loss in men’s T20Is in more than two years as a result of the setback, which also ended India’s streak of 12 straight undefeated bilateral series.
“India has been a very very ordinary limited overs side for sometime now. They have been humbled by a West Indies side that failed to qualify for the T20 WC few months back. We had also lost to Ban in the ODI series. Hope they introspect instead of making silly statements #IndvWI.” Venkatesh, who has been a staunch critic of the team recently, posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The West Indies’ series victory came at the right time since, after missing out on last year’s T20 World Cup, they were unable to advance to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India.
“Not just 50 overs, West Indies had failed to qualify for the T20 World cup last Oct- Nov as well. It pains to see India perform poorly and brush it under the carpet, under the garb of process. That hunger, fire is missing and we live in an illusion,” Prasad responded to a fan who misquoted West Indies for failing to qualify for the ODI World Cup this year rather than the T20 World Cup last year.
When a fan asked Prasad what he thought of the Indian T20 skipper and management, the 54-year-old did not hesitate to blame them for the disappointing T20I series loss to the West Indies.
He also emphasised that a structured strategy was used under former Indian captain MS Dhoni, but that it has since been abandoned. Prasad continued by criticising the management of the Indian squad for its inconsistent selection procedures.
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“They are responsible for the debacle and need to be accountable. Process and such words are misused now. MS meant it, guys now just use the word. There is no consistency in selection, random stuff happening too much” said Prasad.
“India needs to improve their skill set. There’s a hunger & intensity deficiency & often the captain looked clueless. Bowler’s can’t bat, batsmen can’t bowl. It’s important to not look for yes men and be blinded because someone is your favourite player but look at the larger good,” he further said.
-IANS
