Former Indian selector Kris Srikkanth slammed Tilak Varma after Shreyas Iyer’s team suffered a 2-0 series loss against Ireland. India was flabbergasted by the Irish team as the visitors could not come up with a collective effort. The visitors lost the opening game at Belfast by 34 runs and were beaten in the second game by one run on Sunday.

In the second game, India had to chase a below-par score of 155 and Tilak Varma scored a sluggish knock of 55 runs off 46 balls. Srikkanth said the left-hander was just playing for himself after he could not take India over the line.

Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “You can’t play the way India did in the middle phase, especially Tilak Varma, Dube and Axar. All their strike rates were poor. You have to stabilize a bit and then start attacking in the middle phase. Otherwise, you’ll be finished if you fail in the middle phase. India lost the game in the middle phase. Tilak Varma was just playing for himself by sneaking in ones and twos. Axar Patel was the same.”

“Tilak Varma tried to take it till the end and become the hero. He thought of winning it in the end and celebrate by lifting his jersey. These targets have to be chased down with an over to spare and not go till the end.”

In the first T20I against Ireland, Tilak had managed only 19 runs off 21 balls.

The 1983 World Cup-winning player slammed India’s middle order batters after they failed to chase down 155 runs against Ireland.

“There was a stage when there were 45 balls without a boundary in the middle phase. How can you win a T20 match like that? It’s shameful that a medicore Ireland bowling has finished this Indian batting lineup. Even in the IPL, look at how many of these top Indian batters scored in Lucknow? Because in Lucknow, the wicket helped the swing and seam bowlers. Very few Indian batters scored in Lucknow. India needed to attack in the middle and not take it till the end,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).

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