India's Winless T20I Run Hits Six as First-Ever Series Loss to England Confirmed

India's slide in T20I cricket has now stretched to a historic low. After going down 3-0 to England in Bristol, India are winless in six straight men's T20Is, their longest such streak ever, easily surpassing the previous worst run of four defeats in a row, which had happened twice before, in 2009 and again in 2021.

The streak began with a shock 2-0 series loss in Ireland last month, India's first defeat to the Irish in international cricket. It has carried straight into England, where the tourists lost the second and third T20Is before Thursday's 9-wicket defeat in the fourth, sealing the series with a game still to play. Only the series opener in Chester-le-Street was spared, washed out by rain without a result.

This is India's first-ever bilateral T20I series defeat to England in a series of two or more matches. In every previous meeting across formats, India had managed at least a share of the spoils. England's 3-0 sweep in this series flips that record entirely, and it comes on the back of a similarly chastening 125-run loss in Nottingham, India's heaviest T20I defeat by runs.

It also marks India's second consecutive bilateral T20I series defeat, the first time that's happened since 2019, when they lost back-to-back series to New Zealand and Australia. Captain Shreyas Iyer remains winless through his opening matches in charge, a tough start to a new leadership era that was supposed to build on India's T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir has called the phase a rebuild, pointing to a young side featuring a 15-year-old opener in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and several fringe bowlers getting their first taste of international cricket against a strong England attack. India will get a chance to end the streak in the dead-rubber fifth T20I in Southampton on Saturday, before a three-match ODI series starting July 14 in Birmingham.