Shreyas Iyer's wake-up call for struggling Indian team: Don't play to save yourself

India’s T20I captain Shreyas Iyer has advised the team to remove the fear of failure from their brains ahead of the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. The Men in Blue are heading into the rubber, having suffered back-to-back losses against Ireland and England.

As a result, the new T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer, who took over the leadership role from Suryakumar Yadav after India’s successful defence of the T20 World Cup on home soil, is yet to taste a victory after seven matches as captain.

Heading into the Zimbabwe series, Iyer has urged the team to shed the fear of failure to get the best out of themselves.

"I don't think they should have a fear of failure. Because when you have such thoughts in the back of your mind, then you play to save yourself. When you don't have the thought of fear of failure, you can get the best out of yourself. So I want to convey this message,” said Iyer in the pre-match press conference ahead of the first T20I on Thursday, July 23 in Harare.

Iyer acknowledged the challenge of adapting to the conditions quickly, mentioning how they got a reality check in Ireland, suffering their first-ever T20I series defeat against the nation, going down 0-2.

Iyer focused on quick acclimatisation

"I'm not going to lie, it is definitely very challenging. Like we came yesterday and today is practice and tomorrow is match again. So it is challenging, but it is fun. We have to adapt as soon as possible, because that's what happened with us in Ireland. So I think we got a sort of reality check there,” he added.

He also highlighted the challenges the team faces going forward, stressing that quickly adapting will help them yield better results.

"We had a rough patch in England, but a lot of positives came out of that. We got to know what we have to build as a team going forward, what kind of presence of mind, awareness, and adaptability we need once we step onto the field. Again, this is going to be a great challenge for us. Some of us are playing here for the first time. So the quicker we adapt, the better result we would get,” said Iyer.

The India skipper also revealed how the losses in Ireland and England brought the team closer to each other.

Losses have brought the team closer: Iyer

"Definitely, as you know, the results didn't go our way. That has brought the team closer to each other. We have been having a lot of discussions about how we are going to play as a unit going forward, especially against Zimbabwe right now,” he added.

Before the Ireland series, India were unbeaten across 16 consecutive series/tournaments since 2023. After suffering a 0-2 defeat in Ireland, they further went down 0-4 in England, with one match ending in no result and lost their first-ever multi-match T20I series against the Three Lions. As a result, they also slipped to the second spot in the ICC T20I team rankings. 

India are on a seven-match winless streak in T20Is, their longest ever in history. Hence, the Men in Blue will be desperate to turn things around against Zimbabwe, with their performances set to draw immense scrutiny during the course of the series.