Indian captain Shubman Gill recently spoke about India's fitness regime ahead of the 50-over World Cup, stressing the importance of staying fit and being resilient.
Team India is known for maintaining strict fitness standards over the years. This is evident from players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have managed to stay fit well into their late 30s, while the youngsters coming up the ranks have also followed the same approach.
Shubman Gill Raises Concerns Over India's Fitness Ahead of World Cup
However, the recent ODI series against England saw several players pick up injuries. Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar were ruled out, while Jasprit Bumrah had to sit out the final ODI. Speaking after the series, skipper Gill said that Team India cannot afford to lose more players due to injuries.
"If you look at the first squad we had announced [for the England ODI series], from that, at least five players did not play this match," he said after the defeat in the decider. "If one player is injured, you look at playing another combination; if 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."
Skipper Calls for Better Fitness and Greater Resilience
With the World Cup right around the corner, Gill stressed the importance of staying fit and ensuring players continue to follow a strict training schedule.
"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. So there aome limitation where our players are not 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.
Gill further explained how last-minute injury concerns make it difficult for the team management to stick to their plans.
"So, keeping all this in mind, it becomes a little difficult when you come to the ground in 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 to improve our fitness and all those things," concluded Gill.
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