'Could've been different': Shreyas Iyer blames poor bowling as India vs West Indies T20I series ends in a tie

India's juggernaut on home soil in T20I bilateral series finally came to a halt on Saturday in Bengaluru as their fifth and final T20I of the series against West Indies was called off due to torrential rainfall.

As the match ended without a winner, the five-match series was tied 2-2. India had won the first and third T20Is in Lucknow and Indore, while the visitors clinched victories in Ranchi and Hyderabad.

For the first time in four years, after 12 bilateral series, India have finally failed to win a T20I series on home soil. The Men in Blue's incredible performance at home also included their triumph at the 2026 T20 World Cup, which India co-hosted with Sri Lanka.

With the series tied after the Bengaluru contest, Shreyas Iyer rued his team's poor bowling in the second and fourth matches. In the second T20I, West Indies had chased down 250 runs in 20 overs in Ranchi and then scored 247 runs in the fourth match at Hyderabad, while batting first, as India fell short by 24 runs.

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The India captain did not shy away from pointing out that the team's poor bowling played a key role in the series being tied as he felt that they should have done much better in Ranchi and Hyderabad.

Iyer, though, lavished praise on his batters and also spoke highly of West Indies batsmen, especially their captain Shai Hope, who scored two centuries in four appearances.

Speaking to reports after the fifth match, Iyer said, "Could've been different [series scoreline] if we'd bowled well in 2nd and 4th games. Batting has been sensational, execution we fell short. Credit where due, they batted phenomenally well. Kudos to Shai Hope, he was superb. The ability to bounce back even after a loss [among the big plusses].

"We weren't able to be consistent throughout, so great learning. Even today, the way we went about our batting was outstanding."

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did not appear in any of the matches as the Indian think tank decided to stick with the Sanju Samson-Abhishek Sharma partnership at the top.

Speaking about Sooryavanshi, Iyer added, "Gonna be a challenging series in New Zealand now. So I just keep telling him [Vaibhav Sooryavanshi], you will get your opportunities. If you're consistent with your process, keep your mindset a bit light and don't think too much about not getting an opportunity. You have to wait sometimes.

"We've got two fantastic openers who've been consistent throughout. Just like another day, we're used to the travel. Not easy to recover and see to it that our routines are intact, but we've been doing that well. Adjusting to conditions pretty fast. As long as we're maintaining this consistently, it's good for the team."

Shreyas Iyer's analysis about his team is on point as Indian bowlers were indeed sub-par in the home series. Season campaigner like Axar Patel went for more than 12 an over across the series, while Arshdeep Singh was costly at the death before his injury in Hyderabad.

Overall, the Indian pace attack has not yet found a way to contain big hitters in the last five overs. The Men in Blue have the batting depth to win most T20Is, but unless the bowling drastically improves, they will face difficulty in New Zealand conditions.

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Ritabrata Banerjee is a content producer and writer, with a focus on cricket, football, Olympic sports and Indian sports. His work has appeared in Goal, Sportskeeda and OneIndia previously, where he has extensively covered top European Leagues, the Champions League, FIFA World Cups, IPL, Indian cricket team matches and Indian football. He has a bachelor's degree in Business Management but took up sports journalism as a career path to live and breathe his passion.