Shubman Gill raises fitness concerns after India's injury-hit England ODI series

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India’s ODI skipper Shubman Gill has criticised the injury breakdown of his bowlers after ‘every second or third game’, questioning whether they are taking their fitness seriously with a marathon tournament like the World Cup coming up next year.

Indian team suffered a 1-2 defeat against England in the three-match ODI series, falling short by 27 runs in Sunday’s decider. Before the first match, pace-bowling all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Nitish Reddy were sidelined due to injury issues.

Harshit Rana also suffered a hamstring tear in the preceding T20I leg, ruling him out of the 50-over matches. During the second ODI, spinner Washington Sundar reported a hamstring problem, while lead fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah picked up an impact injury that forced him out of the final game.

“Yes, absolutely,” Gill admitted when asked if there are concerns about so many niggles.

“If you look at the squad, the first squad that we announced, out of that, at least five players did not play this match. So, one player gets injured, and you try to play a different combination. There are two players, a different combination. But I think after every match, if a player is missing, somewhere we are missing a few tricks,” Gill said.

Gill warns against recurring injuries ahead of the South Africa World Cup

Gill’s main worry centres around how the squad will handle playing up to 11 consecutive matches in South Africa next year if players continue to pick up injuries after just a couple of outings.

“If we keep the World Cup in mind, we have to play 11 matches in a row. And here the players are not even able to finish 2-3 series of matches. So somewhere it is missing that our players are not able to play matches continuously,” he added.

Although he refrained from pointing fingers at specific individuals, the skipper expressed disappointment over players declaring themselves unfit on matchday mornings, complicating tactical planning.

“They play one or two matches. If there is a niggle or something, then we are forced to play a different combination. So after seeing all these things, it is a bit difficult that one day in the morning, if you come to know that this player has a niggle, and then it is almost like, do you want to take a chance?”

“Someone is 80 per cent fit, you are playing with five bowlers…it is difficult. But I think somewhere, as a group, I don’t know, our fitness or all those things need to be improved,” he concluded.

(With inputs from PTI)

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