India conceded a tenth of the total they scored with three no-balls and the free hits that accompanied them. Three back-foot no-balls bowled by Ravi Bishnoi, a surprise inclusion in the squad in the first place after his IPL team, Rajasthan Royals, played him in only about half of their matches in 2026, resulted in 19 runs, enough to be the difference between a nail-biter and England winning with an over to spare.
That Bishnoi was included twice in the XI against England without playing in Ireland suggests the team management possibly believed Bishnoi was a good match-up against England. However, three back-foot no-balls in a match, two of them in the 17th over, which India arguably started in ascendance, is just not good enough in a T20 match. With these three, Bishnoi has foot-faulted ten times in T20 cricket since 2022; only three spinners have done it more often.
You can still overlook a front-foot no-ball from a fast bowler. At a pinch, you can make allowances for a spinner overstepping. Back-foot no-balls from a spinner, however, suggest he is doing something he has not done in the nets or, worse, nobody has corrected him in the nets. By the end of it, Bishnoi just seemed more worried about where he was landing than where the ball was landing, which points to more of a preparation issue than execution.
It is a possible sign of how far the game has pushed its spinners that Bishnoi unveiled in this IPL that extreme jump from wide of the crease in his run-up in order to, one can only surmise, use the angles especially when he doesn't turn the ball big. From whatever we know of bowling technique, this doesn't help you turn the ball more or be more accurate. It is mostly desperation to try to do something to stay in a game loaded against you.
Even to the naked eye, it seemed Bishnoi was starting much wider in this match, meaning he needed a big jump to his right to get into his delivery stride legally. Now, not many teams fuss over front-foot no-balls in the nets leave alone back-foot ones, but, unlike overstepping, this is not a habit you can suddenly correct on match day.
With this defeat, India find themselves in a ridiculous situation where they have dropped the captain and the Player of the Tournament from the World Cup that they won earlier this year, and that is not even close to the reason why they have now lost their last three completed matches. You can argue either way about the leaving out of Suryakumar Yadav from the squad for new captain Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson from this XI for Vaibhav Sooryanvanshi, and chances are you won't be too wrong. You could even argue it should have been Rajat Patidar who replaced Suryakumar, and still not be wrong.
The difference between the team that was winning everything earlier this year and this one is more than the personnel. The difference is that the conditions are now more familiar to the opposition. While that doesn't mean India are not good enough to win in England, they also can't make up for errors in preparation and execution as much as they can at home.
In Ireland, Iyer quite candidly admitted India were found wanting on planning and analysing. It has been followed up by this result. As a captain who is becoming unpopular for having replaced a World Cup winner, Iyer will have to make sure such lack of attention to details doesn't become a trend.