Sanjay Manjrekar slams Gautam Gambhir after T20I series loss against Ireland

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar slammed head coach Gautam Gambhir after the T20I series loss against Ireland. India was stunned by the Irish team as they suffered a 2-0 series loss. The visitors lost the opening game at Belfast by 34 runs and were beaten in the second game by one run on Sunday.

Manjrekar highlighted that India has suffered such shocking losses more often under Gambhir’s tutelage. The former Indian batter called out the imbalance in the squad and criticised the team’s obsession of playing with more all-rounders. He feels India needs a pure middle-order batter instead of an all-rounder.

“It was too little earlier…under Gambhir, it’s too many. The ‘all rounders’. India needs a PURE middle order batter, pronto!,” he wrote on X.

India backed Suryansh Shedge in the second game as a seam-bowling all-rounder in the absence of Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy, but the Mumbai player failed to grab his chance. Earlier, Washington Sundar could not deliver in the series opener.

Manjrekar added that India failed to beat the Irish conditions while playing away. India was bundled out for 148 in the series opener, whereas they kept losing wickets in the second T20I in the run chase of 155.

He wrote in another tweet, “This series was always about beating the Irish conditions rather than the Ireland cricket team; India failed at that. Let’s see now what learnings India takes into England.”

Manjrekar also predicted that India might go back to Shubman Gill when they play in tough overseas conditions, while speaking on Sony Sports Network. Gill recently scored 732 runs in 16 matches of IPL 2026 while leading Gujarat Titans to the final of the tournament.

India will next take on England in a five-match T20I series, starting Wednesday.