‘If you are not able to play 3 matches, how will you play the World Cup?’: Captain Shubman Gill angry at the fitness of the players after losing the series to England.

After losing the three-match ODI series against England by 1-2, a big statement has come from the acting captain of the Indian cricket team, Shubman Gill. Gill has openly expressed his concern over continuous injuries to players and key faces of the team sitting out. The lack of consistency in the performance of the Indian team, which was struggling with the injury problem of star players, was clearly visible. After this defeat, captain Shubman Gill has come to the center stage and made a strong demand for better fitness standards and strong workload management for the players of Team India.

Team India is facing injury crisis: The team entered the field without five main players.

In this series against England, the Indian team could not get the services of many of its key match-winning players. Many key players including all-rounder Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy and star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah were completely out due to injuries. After the third and decisive ODI played at Lord’s, Shubman Gill said that if we look at our main playing eleven, at least five players were not playing in this match. As soon as one or two players get injured, the combination of the entire team deteriorates, making it very difficult to maintain the right balance on the field.

Gill’s serious warning regarding ODI World Cup: ‘There is something big missing somewhere’

Taking a jibe at the players who are continuously getting injured, Shubman Gill said that this situation is very worrying keeping in mind the upcoming ODI World Cup. He said in clear words that to win a big tournament like the World Cup, any team has to play 11 consecutive matches, but here our players are not able to complete even a short series of two or three matches. Gill said that if players keep missing after every match due to injury then we cannot achieve big targets. Clearly there is a major shortcoming somewhere in our preparation and the fitness level of the players.

The huge target of 388 runs at Lord’s proved costly: even the innings of Rohit-Kohli-Gill could not lead to victory

In the third ODI match played between India and England, complete dominance of the host team was seen. Batting first, England scored a massive score of 387 runs on the board with the help of explosive innings by Jacob Bethel, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jos Buttler. In reply, for the Indian team, former captain Rohit Sharma scored a brilliant 138 runs, while Shubman Gill contributed 77 runs and Virat Kohli contributed 74 runs. However, due to the pressure of the huge target and the collapse of the middle order, Team India was all out for 360 runs and lost the series by 27 runs.