‘Discussed some strategies’: BCCI’s Devajit Saikia admits India’s overseas struggles after Ireland, England defeats

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has admitted that Indian cricket needs to undertake “some soul-searching” following the team’s disappointing results in Ireland and England, with the board now looking at measures to address India’s struggles on overseas assignments.

India suffered a shock 2-0 defeat to Ireland in Ireland in a T20I series before going down 4-0 to England in another away T20I series. India also lost an ODI series to England 2-1. 

Speaking after the BCCI’s review meeting in Mumbai on Thursday, Saikia acknowledged that the results required the board to examine the reasons behind India’s performances and plan better for future overseas tours.

"You all know that we lost matches in Ireland and also in England. We wanted to know what the reasons are, and we have to do some soul-searching about that. And in future, what we will be doing before going to any of the SENA countries, we have discussed some strategies," he told reporters in Mumbai.

India eyes best combination for ODI World Cup 2027

He stressed that India's next focus should be on selecting the best-ever team for the ODI World Cup 2027 late next year.

"Our main intention is that we should have the best team combination in the months of October, November next year, in the ODI World Cup. We have basically thought about what should be our way forward with our team preparation and all, because we have a lot of series now," he stated.

India have been recently hit with injuries to key players, including Jasprit Bumrah and Harshit Rana, and Saikia said that the BCCI will address these issues amid a hectic cricketing calendar.

"Individual players are having injuries because they have to play a lot of matches. If you look at their schedule, if you look at England, a 15-player team went for the ODIs and out of the 15, three to four players got injured. But they had played two months of IPL prior to that. So all this takes a toll on the health of the players also. And to avoid those kinds of situations, what is best we can do under the present windows and present FTPs, we are trying to find some ways out," he said.

He hoped there would be a window for India to play practice matches before any major series in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries, in a bid to acclimatise to the conditions.

"The only challenges which we are facing is that there are too many matches in the year, and that is why in the next FTP, we will do certain things, we will take certain measures. We have instructed our FTP person, who we will be meeting very soon in various international forums, that our FTP should be scheduled in such a way that there is proper rest for the players as well as some kind of acclimatisation or some kind of friendly matches before any major series in SENA countries,” explained the 57-year-old.

India recently defeated Sri Lanka 1-0 in a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka, and the team's next assignment is a three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in New Delhi, starting from 13 September. India will travel to New Zealand later this year to play five T20Is, as many ODIs and two Tests, before hosting Australia for a five-match Test series early next year.