Indian skipper Shubman Gill has called for improved fitness within the squad after a 2-1 series loss against England. Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy are currently recovering from injuries. Washington Sundar was ruled out of the third ODI due to a hamstring injury whereas Bumrah could not play due to a knee injury.
Gill himself suffered from cramps in the first and third ODI against England and thus there is no doubt that the fitness woes played a key role in India’s series loss.
Hardik Pandya picked up a quadriceps strain at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence while undergoing rehab for a back injury whereas Nitish Kumar Reddy also suffered a same injury. Harshit Rana was ruled out with an injury amid the T20I series against England.
“If you look at the first squad that we announced, at least five of the players did not play today,” Gill said after the Lord’s ODI.
“When one player gets injured, you have to play a different combination. If two are injured, you play a different combination. I think if a player is missing after every match [due to injury], somewhere we are missing a trick. Keeping the World Cup in mind, we have to play eleven matches in a row. And here the players are unable to finish a series of two or three matches. So something is missing somewhere.
“They play one or two matches, there’s a niggle and then we’re forced to play a different combination which we don’t think of playing. So all those things make it difficult if one morning you find out that a player has a niggle. And then it’s almost like, ‘do you want to take a chance?’ Someone is 80 per cent fit, you’re playing with five bowlers and if he bowls five overs and goes off the field, then who will you bowl? It is difficult. But somewhere as a group, we need to improve our fitness,” he said.
Gill also shed light on Kuldeep Yadav’s exclusion after the wrist spinner didn’t get a single ODI against England.
“Whenever spinners came on to bowl, we felt like we kind of had to go into a defensive route. Whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening,” Gill said. “That was the thought process behind not playing an extra spinner, maybe play a fast bowler because in the middle overs, you obviously want to create pressure and see if the chances get created.
“Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket it got a bit slower. When we were bowling and when Axar [Patel] bhai was bowling it didn’t look like the wicket will get slower, but when they [England] came in to bowl, it did look like the wicket got a tad bit slower as the game went on,” he added.
India will next take on Zimbabwe in a three-match T20I series.
