'They play 1-2 matches, suffer a niggle & then we...': Gill blames players' fitness for ODI series loss to England

India cricket team">India cricket team">India cricket team">India cricket team">India men’s senior team captain Shubman Gill rued injuries to key players of the ODI squad after 2-1 series defeat to England. At Lord's, London, England posted 387/3. Rohit Sharma's century, Gill and Virat Kohli's fifties took India close to the target but they ended up losing the decider by 27 runs. After the defeat, Gill pointed out that several players were unavailable for selection due to injury which forced the team management to go with a different combination.

"If you look at the first squad we had announced, from that minimum five players did not play this match," he said after the 27-run defeat.

"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.”

List of injured players

Washington Sundar was ruled out of the third ODI, Jasprit Bumrah wasn't available due to an impact injury. Prior to the ODI series, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy were ruled out due to their respective injuries. Reddy was already picked as an injured Hardik Pandya’s replacement. It led to India going in with Shivam Dube as the pace-bowling all-rounder.

Gill concerned for World Cup 2027

The next year’s ODI World Cup will be played in Africa. Gill wonders whether the players will be able to deal with the burden on a long tournament while they are getting injured during bilateral ODI series. The skipper reveals that injuries to key players leads to the team deviating from the original plan with not much time to plan for. 

"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 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,” the opener said. 

Gill pointed out the danger of playing with a bowler who has a niggle as it can lead to them leaving the field without completing their quota of overs, leaving the team in a tough position. He wants the players to improve their fitness going forward. 

"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 added. 

No Kuldeep, Brar goes for nearly 100 runs

Arshdeep Singh played his first match of the series. The left-arm pacer went wickeless and conceded 72 runs. Prasidh Krishna bagged a couple of wickets but conceded 69 runs. Young Prince Yadav dismissed opener Ben Duckett who scored 141 runs but gave away 79 runs. Gurnoor Brar was the most expensive bowler in the lineup. He conceded 97 runs, third-most by an Indian bowler in ODI history. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel was the most economical, conceding 61 runs from 10 overs. While there was assistance for spinners on the pitch, Kuldeep Yadav was benched again. Kuldeep will return to India without playing a game on the tour.

Second ODI series defeat in 2026

This is India’s second ODI series defeat in the calendar year. In January 2026, New Zealand beat India by 2-1 in the ODI series. After a long break, India’s next ODI series was against Afghanistan at home. India blanked Afghanistan 3-0 at home. Also, India were able to win just one game on the entire white-ball tour of Ireland and England. 

What’s next for India?

India's next ODI series is against West Indies at home. The three-ODI series will begin on September 27 and end on October 3. Meanwhile, India will tour Zimbabwe for the three-T20I series from July 23 to July 26. Then Gill-led India will be in action in the two-Test series on Sri Lankan soil from August 15 to August 27.