Shamik Chakrabarty, Galle
On August 4, Shubman Gill’s India landed in Colombo. They got down to business the very next day. So far, the Indian team has taken just one day off. Eight players turned up for the optional practice session on the eve of the match. Whatever happens in the two-Test series that starts here in Galle tomorrow, a lack of preparation won’t be an issue this time, unlike during the home series against South Africa last winter.
After suffering another home-series whitewash — the previous one was against New Zealand in 2024 — Gill had spoken about the short turnaround time from white-ball cricket to the red-ball variety. Sample this: the first Test against the Proteas started on November 14, 2025. The last match of the Australian tour, a T20I, was played on November 8. Gill, Washington Sundar and Jasprit Bumrah were part of that fixture, and all three would feature in the Test series as well.
After the series defeat in Guwahati, Gautam Gambhir fronted up and was pretty hot under the collar. In that tetchy atmosphere of the press conference room, the head coach had let it rip. “If we really care about Test cricket, if we want Test cricket to flourish in India, I think we have to have a collective effort to make that happen, because just blaming the players or just blaming the support staff or just blaming certain individuals will not help,” Gambhir told reporters. “And as I just said, we cannot put things under the carpet.”
Cut to August 14, 2026, and at the pre-match press conference ahead of the series opener, Gill sort of put down a marker in terms of the preparation time for a Test series. “If we do have an opportunity and if the scheduling allows us to have at least a week or 10 days before the Test match starts, it obviously helps with the preparation,” said the India captain.
For a team in transition, with a lot of players relatively new to the set-up and going through the bedding-in period, adapting quickly to different formats is not easy. Besides technical adjustments, a different mindset is required for the longer format. Gill said as much.
“Even last year, we had quite a busy schedule in terms of travelling, playing in England and playing the Asia Cup, then playing the Test matches (against the West Indies) in India, going to Australia, and then playing a Test match within four days of coming back from Australia,” the skipper elaborated. “So it’s never easy for the players to be able to adapt. And most of the players in this team, I think they require a bit of time to be able to adjust with the conditions. It’s not like a lot of the players have a lot of matches or a lot of experience under their belt. So the extra time in preparation definitely helps.”
Last year, India had journeyed to England on June 6, a fortnight before the Test series began in Leeds. That India more than held their own in a 2-2 draw was perhaps no coincidence.
Gill himself became a victim of the cramped schedule. A change in stance that worked wonderfully well in the Test series in England restricted his game in the shortest format. Getting dropped from the T20 World Cup squad was a high price to pay. Credit to the BCCI for addressing the issue and making things better for the players in terms of getting ready for a Test series. Now, Gill & Co must deliver.
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