India’s struggles in the T20I format continued as England secured an emphatic nine-wicket victory in the third match at the County Ground in Bristol on Thursday. The win gave the hosts an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series with one game still left to play, while India suffered their third defeat in four T20Is under captain Shreyas Iyer.
The visitors came into the contest hoping to recover from their crushing 125-run defeat in Nottingham just two days earlier. However, the result followed a similar pattern as India once again failed to challenge a dominant England side.
After being asked to bat first, India found it difficult to build partnerships and managed only 158/7 in their allotted 20 overs. Captain Shreyas Iyer was the lone bright spot, remaining unbeaten on 80 and holding the innings together despite wickets falling regularly at the other end.
England made light work of the chase. Skipper Harry Brook led from the front with an unbeaten 79 off just 35 balls as the home side raced to 159/1 in only 13.5 overs, finishing the match with 37 deliveries to spare.
The defeat added to India’s disappointing run in T20Is and placed Shreyas Iyer in an unwanted list of Indian captains. After taking over the T20I captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav in June, Shreyas Iyer has now become only the second Indian skipper to lose two successive bilateral T20I series. India had earlier lost the series in Ireland 2-0 before the ongoing defeat in England.
Before Shreyas Iyer, only Virat Kohli had experienced back-to-back bilateral T20I series defeats, losing 2-1 to New Zealand and 2-0 to Australia in 2019. The losses against Ireland and England also mark India’s first consecutive T20I series defeats since that year.
England’s comfortable chase also registered as India’s third biggest T20I defeat in terms of balls remaining. Only Australia’s victories over India in Melbourne by 52 balls in 2008 and 40 balls in 2025 were more one-sided in this category.
The result came immediately after India’s record 125-run defeat in Nottingham, where they were bowled out for just 76 while chasing 202. That collapse was India’s second lowest T20I total and their biggest defeat by runs while batting second.
England’s series triumph also ended India’s long dominance over them in T20Is. India had not lost a T20I series to England since 2014. It also marked India’s first bilateral series defeat in England across all formats since 2018, ending an impressive unbeaten run that included three T20I series, three ODI series and two Test series.
