Indian captain Shubman Gill admitted batting collapses and drop catches led to their downfall in the opening Test five-wicket loss against England at Leeds, Headingley on Tuesday. In the first innings, India lost their last seven wickets for only 41 runs. 

The visitors were going strongly at 430-3 but they veered off the track and were bundled out for 471. It was a similar story in the second innings as India lost their last six wickets for 31 runs. Ergo, overall India lost 13-72 and gave away the advantage to England.

Furthermore, India dropped a total of nine catches in the Test match, which didn’t help them. Thus, India was poor in the field and their lower order could not contribute anything with the bat.

Shubman Gill said in the post-match presentation, “I think it was a brilliant Test match. We had our chances, we dropped catches and our lower-order didn’t contribute enough, but proud of the team and overall a good effort. Yesterday we were thinking we were going to get around 430 and declare. Unfortunately our last 6 wickets scored only around 20-25 runs which is never a good sign. Even today after their brilliant opening partnership I felt we still had our chance but just didn’t go our way in this match.”

Speaking on batting collapses in both innings, Gill said, “Yes, that was something that we spoke about but when you are out there in the middle it happens so quickly and I think it would be one of those things that we have to rectify in the upcoming matches Could be one of those things we have to rectify in the upcoming matches. Yes, definitely chances don’t come easy especially on wickets like these and we dropped quite a few catches but I think we’ve got a young team, still a learning one and hopefully in the next matches we’ll be able to improve on those aspects.”

India became the first team to lose a Test match despite scoring five centuries. The visitors could not capitalise when they were in front and it led to their downfall.

The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.