After the ODI series defeat in England, Shubman Gill called out the Indian team’s fitness. India lost the final ODI at Lord’s by 27 runs on Sunday to concede the series 2-1.
The list starts with Hardik Pandya, who missed the ODIs in England due to a quadriceps strain. Nitish Kumar Reddy, too, was ruled out with a quad injury. Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy had returned to the fold after completing their rehabilitation at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). They broke down during the T20I leg of the UK tour. Washington Sundar sustained a hamstring injury in Cardiff and was rendered hors de combat for the final ODI. Jasprit Bumrah missed the Lord’s game due to an impact injury. Without him, India conceded 387 in the series decider. One significant aspect is that the majority of the players are picking up muscle injuries.
Gill was pretty straightforward at the post-match press conference. He now has the air of someone who is in control of the team. “If you look at the first squad we had announced (for the ODI series in England), from that, a minimum of five players did not play this match (at Lord’s),” the skipper told reporters. “If one player is injured, you look at playing another combination. If two players are injured, you look at playing another combination. But if, after every match, some player is missing, then somewhere we are missing a trick.”
This begs the question: are fitness issues being handled properly at the CoE? It also puts the Indian team support staff — those in charge of fitness, conditioning and recovery — under the scanner. With their sights firmly set on the 2027 World Cup, Gill called for improvement.
“If you keep the World Cup as the goal, where we have to play 11 matches in a row, and here we have players not being able to finish a two-to-three-match series,” Gill didn’t mince his words. “So there is some limitation where our players are not able to play continuously. They play one or two matches, suffer a niggle, and then we are forced to play a different combination, which we originally did not plan to play.”
Form and fitness appear to be the two biggest concerns as India prepare for the World Cup. They have lost three ODI series — in Australia, the home series against New Zealand, and the series in England — over the last 10 months. A number of players are struggling to stay fit. Some tough questions are expected to be asked at the BCCI’s review meeting.
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