BELFAST: A sense of “disbelief” hangs over the India camp after the double 20-overs world champions suffered a 2-0 series whitewash against Ireland with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate blaming the debacle on their failure to adapt to conditions in Belfast.

Few gave Ireland a chance in the two-match series, but Lorcan Tucker’s side humbled India twice in three days, spoiling Shreyas Iyer’s debut series as India’s 20-overs captain.

“There’s a little bit of disbelief,” ten Doeschate told reporters after Ireland edged them out by one run on Sunday. “It’s also very hard to be critical of guys who have just won a World Cup. We’ve been outdone or outsmarted by a team who just did the basics very well.”

The former Dutch player hailed Ireland’s inspired display but felt the Indian batters failed to get used to conditions at Stormont.

“Firstly, credit to Ireland and secondly the learnings for us in terms of being able to adapt to different conditions,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest takeaway from this.”

Coming off the flat pitches and short boundaries in the IPL, Iyer and his men struggled on a spicy pitch with bigger square boundaries.

Ten Doeschate acknowledged his batters failed to make the transition.

“That was essentially our undoing,” he said. “It’s something we spoke about before, but we just didn’t address it well enough out in the middle.”

Meanwhile, Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan will step down from his role, the country’s cricket board said on Monday, shortly after the Irish whitewashed India.

The South African, appointed in 2022, oversaw a period in which Ireland qualified for three consecutive T20 World Cups, secured their first three Test match victories, and claimed their first-ever series win against India.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2026