Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik slammed India’s game awareness after a 2-0 series loss against Ireland on Sunday. India suffered a one-run loss against the hosts at Belfast after losing the series opener by 34 runs on Friday.

In the second T20I, Arshdeep Singh took a single off the last ball of the penultimate over of the innings when India were chasing 155. Harshit Rana, who was going all guns blazing, was at the other end but the pair decided to take a single and thus Singh retained the strike for the first ball of the final over.

Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “And also a little bit of presence of mind for batting as well, you have to say. India were in a decent place. They were chasing down a total. They required 21 off seven. Arshdeep and Harshit Rana. But guess what? When 21 off seven was required, Arshdeep hits a ball and takes a single. Ideally, you would want somebody like Harshit Rana taking strike at the start of the over because that would put pressure.

“In case he hits a six on the first ball, that would mean the pressure is back on the bowler in the last over, which it could easily have been because it was Harry Tector bowling, but that wasn’t meant to be. So, small little lapses in terms of game awareness for a champion side. India are a World Cup-winning side; you would expect better,” he added.

Karthik hailed Prince Yadav for making an impressive debut against Ireland. The Delhi pacer returned with stunning figures of 3-22 in his quota of three overs.

“Prince Yadav, who bowled beautifully, mainly because he again bowled just the one over in the powerplay. But the way he was able to come back and use his skills. Yes, he got two of his three wickets at the back end, but the key was the lengths that he bowled. He just gave away 22 runs, bowled very nicely, and I think India will be very happy with the output that they saw from Prince Yadav.”

India will next take on England in a five-match T20I series, starting Wednesday.