Captain Gill calls on India to improve fitness for World Cup after loss to England
Team were without their premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya and his replacement Nitish Kumar Reddy also missed the tour with a quadriceps injury
Captain Shubman Gill said India failed to field their best combination in the one-day series against England because of frequent injuries to players, a concern the team must address before next year’s World Cup.
India were without their premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya and his replacement Nitish Kumar Reddy also missed the tour of England with a quadriceps injury.
Seamer Harshit Rana and all-rounder Washington Sundar also picked up injuries at different stages of the tour while pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah missed Sunday’s decider, which England won by 26 runs to seal a 2-1 series victory.
“If you look at the first squad, we had announced [for the series], from that minimum five players did not play this match,” Gill said after their loss at Lord’s.
“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, here we have players not being able to finish a two- to three-match series.