Indian skipper Shubman Gill has slammed the Indian players for their poor fitness levels during the three-match ODI series against England, which the hosts won by 2-1 after India suffered a 27-run defeat at Lord’s, on Sunday, July 19.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Gill expressed his disappointment over at least five players missing out the Lord’s ODI from the initially announced ODI squad due to various injuries.
“If you look at the first squad we had announced [for the England ODI series], from that minimum five players did not play this match,” Gill said at the post-match press conference.
“If one player is injured you look at playing another combination, 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. 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,” he added.
“So there is some limitation where our players are not being able to play continuously, they play one or two matches, they suffer a niggle and then we are forced to play a different combination which we originally did not plan to play,” he noted.
Before the three-match series began, Harshit Rana was ruled out. Moreover, the all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy ended up missing the series with injury. During the series, Washington Sundar picked up an injury and then KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah too ended up missing a game, which didn’t go down well with Gill.
“So keeping all this mind it becomes a little difficult that you come to the ground on the morning and you come to know a player has a niggle, then it’s almost like do you want to take a chance? Some player is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers and if this player comes out after bowling five overs, then who will bowl? This is difficult. So as a group we need improved our fitness and all those things,” he concluded.
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