Our performance was atrocious and unacceptable: Shreyas Iyer

India captain Shreyas Iyer minced no words after his team’s crushing 125-run defeat to England in the third T20 International, describing the performance as “atrocious” and admitting such a heavy loss was “not acceptable”.

Under Iyer, India are yet to win a T20 International, and Tuesday’s outing marked an abject surrender as they were bowled out for 76 in just 11.4 overs while chasing 202 to suffer their biggest defeat in the format in terms of runs.

“It was atrocious, losing by that margin is not acceptable. First things first, we have to accept the loss and go back to the drawing board,” Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The win handed England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series ahead of the fourth T20I in Bristol on Thursday and the final in Southampton on Saturday. The opening match was a wash-out. Iyer felt that the bowling unit shouldn’t have gone for 200 on this Trent Bridge track.

“I don’t think it was a 200 wicket. We lost four wickets in the powerplay and that itself pushed us back. You can plan a lot but once you come to the ground, you need to adapt. Try to figure out what is the right length. I felt the hard length was tough (to hit) and we didn’t execute,” he said.

Iyer believes that dwelling on failures would be of no use but at the same time, the players need to think about making an impact, which is paramount.