‘Hunger, fire is missing, we live in an illusion’: Venkatesh Prasad slams ordinary Indian team after WI T20I series loss

New Delhi: Former pacer Venkatesh Prasad slammed the Indian setup after the Hardik Pandya-led side suffer a 2-3 series defeat in a five-match T20I series against the West Indies, and said that the Team India had no hunger and fire while adding that they are living in an illusion.

The West Indies have broken a six-year drought by defeating India by eight wickets in the fifth and final T20I in Florida on Sunday to clinch the five-game series in style.

This was India’s first T20I series defeat against the Caribbean side since 2017. Moreover, the loss broke India’s streak of 12 consecutive unbeaten bilateral series as the Asian side fell to their first series defeat in men’s T20Is in more than two years.

“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 series win was a timely result for the West Indies, who failed to qualify for this year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India after missing out on T20 World Cup last year.

“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 inquired about Prasad’s opinion on the Indian T20 captain and management, the 54-year-old promptly held the captain and management responsible for the T20I series disappointment against the West Indies.

He additionally highlighted that during the tenure of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, a structured approach was followed, which has now been abandoned. Prasad went on to criticize the lack of consistency in the selection process by the Indian team’s management.

“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