BRISTOL: India captain Shreyas Iyer said his T20 world champions were in “transition” after another heavy defeat saw England complete a series-clinching success in Bristol on Thursday.

England captain Harry Brook smashed an unbeaten 79 from 35 balls and Phil Salt finished on 59 not out as the hosts registered a nine-wicket win and overhauled India’s modest 158-7 with more than six overs to spare.

Brook struck eight fours and four sixes while Salt’s innings contained nine fours and a six.

Victory came just two days after England inflicted India’s heaviest T20 defeat in terms of runs — a 125-run thrashing at Trent Bridge — and left them 3-0 up in the series with just Saturday’s finale at South­ampton remaining.

“It is always good to beat India as they are a strong side and have been for many years,” said Brook.

England fast bowlers Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue backing up impressive displays in Nottingham with two wickets each.

Iyer provided rare resistance with an unbeaten 80 from 49 balls.

But India still suffered a record fifth straight T20 defeat following their shock 2-0 series loss away to Ireland.

Brook and Salt, bowled from a free hit on four, ran riot against an attack without spinner Varun Chakravarthy and seamer Harshit Rana, both of whom suffered series-ending hamstring injuries in Nottingham.

India came on tour without rested star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and injured all-rounder Hardik Pandya.

“It was a disappointing one, 158 wasn’t a perfect total on the board and eventually we saw how quickly they (England) chased it down,” said Iyer.

“I think we were a bit short on our execution. When we tried change of pace or something else they got boundaries.

“This is a transition phase and we will be making a lot of mistakes. A lot of youngsters were playing in these conditions for the first time.”

England will go top of the T20 world rankings if they win at Southampton.

“It would be pretty cool for us to be world No. 1, to be honest. That is definitely an aim,” said Brook.

India, who won the toss, at least improved upon their woeful 76 all out in Nottingham.

Teenage opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck Tongue to the cover boundary and hit an upper cut for six, but the 15-year-old rising star was again unable to better his age after scores of 13 and 14.

Sooryavanshi fell for 15 when he skied Archer to mid-on, falling to his Rajasthan Royals team-mate just as he had done at Trent Bridge. And India were 48-3 when leg-spinner Adil Rashid ran 20 yards to catch Abhishek Sharma.

Iyer and Shivam Dube repaired the innings, albeit in sedate fashion.

The fourth-wicket partnership was worth 53 from 43 balls when Dube holed out in the deep to off-spinner Will Jack’s slower ball.

Iyer reached his second fifty of the series with a six off Rashid.

Arshdeep Singh had Jos Buttler caught behind, but it was one-way traffic from then on as Salt and Brook shared a stand of 146.

BCCI TO REVIEW ‘BAD PHASE’

Meanwhile on Friday, Indian cricket board’s secretary Devajit Saikia said that they will review the T20 team’s performance after a dismal.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will meet to discuss the reasons for the team’s show after the England tour ends on July 19, Saikia said.

“The BCCI is currently observing the performance of the Indian T20 team which has not been up to the mark in the ongoing series against England,” Saikia, who is in Edinburgh for the annual conference of the International Cricket Council, told AFP over phone.

“We will have a review meeting with the core members of the team to discuss what went wrong in England.”

Saikia described the slump as a temporary setback.

“This is not something abnormal and can happen in international cricket. We consider it as a purely bad phase,” he said.

Scoreboard

INDIA:V. Sooryavanshi c Curran b Archer 15 A. Sharma c&b Rashid 16 I. Kishan c Curran b Tongue 4 S. Iyer not out 80 S. Dube c Banton b Jacks 22 T. Varma c Rehan b Tongue 11 W. Sundar c Rashid b Archer 5 A. Patel run out 1 EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4 TOTAL (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 158 DID NOT BAT: P. Yadav, A. Singh, P. Krishna FALL OF WICKETS: 1-23 (Sooryavanshi), 2-33 (Kishan), 3-48 (Sharma), 4-101 (Dube), 5-130 (Varma), 6-157 (Sundar), 7-158 (Patel) BOWLING: Archer 4-0-20-2 (1w), Tongue 4-0-36-2, Jacks 4-0-28-1 (1w), Curran 4-0-24-0 (1w), Rashid 4-0-49-1 ENGLAND:P. Salt not out 59 J. Buttler c Kishan b Singh 8 H. Brook not out 79 EXTRAS (LB-6, NB-2, W-5) 13 TOTAL (for one wicket, 13.5 overs) 159 DID NOT BAT: J. Bethell, T. Banton, W. Jacks, S. Curran, R. Ahmed, J. Archer, A. Rashid, J. Tongue FALL OF WICKET: 1-13 (Buttler) BOWLING: Singh 3.5-1-41-1 (2w), Krishna 3-0-26-0 (1nb), Yadav 3-0-28-0 (1w, 1nb), Patel 2-0-24-0, Sundar 1-0-19-0, Dube 1-0-15-0 (2w) RESULT: England won by nine wickets. MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Harry Brook

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2026