NEW DELHI: Shubman Gill was out of character when he addressed the media after the defeat at Lord’s in the third ODI. Generally calm, mostly poised and ever ready, the skipper looked frustrated after losing his third ODI series since taking over from Rohit Sharma ahead of the Australia tour.The frustration did not come from the cricket his team played in the England series and previous matches, but from the constant bouts of niggles, breakdowns and injuries that hampered preparations and never allowed India to field their strongest Playing XI.A fair amount of experimentation and movement in the batting order took place while testing combinations, but India’s injury crisis is a serious concern as they develop into next year’s ODI World Cup.
Ever since the talks for the multi-nation event started, the management wanted to have enough bowling options ready, but their primary and backup options, Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy, are camped at the BCCI Center of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.While Reddy was injured during the ODI series against Afghanistan last month, Pandya is yet to feature in an ODI for India from the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand in March 2025. Even Harshit Rana, who has been groomed for the No. 8 role, has suffered two injuries in the last six months.
If you look at the first team that we had announced, from there, a minimum of five players did not play this match
Shubman Gill
The spin-bowling department has had its share of misfortunes as Washington Sundar has suffered a couple of setbacks in the last six months: a side strain ahead of the T20 World Cup and a hamstring injury this month. Varun Chakravarthy, who was India’s X-factor in the Champions Trophy triumph, suffered a hairline fracture before a Grade 2 hamstring injury sidelined him.To make matters worse, India’s star bowler Jasprit Bumrah played just two ODIs in the series against England and was ruled out before Lord’s decision. This forced Gill to operate with a very inexperienced bowling attack featuring Gurnoor Brar and Prince Yadav. The skipper did not mince words during the post-match press conference, highlighting how first-choice players remained unavailable throughout the series.
“If you look at the first team that we had announced, from that, a minimum of five players did not play this match,” he said after the series loss at Lord’s. “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 there is a trick missing,” he added.Mentioning the World Cup, where a team will play 11 matches in a row if they go all the way, the Indian captain emphasized how the players could not finish even the short series.“If you have the World Cup as the goal, where we have to play 11 games in a row, and here we have players who could not finish a series of two or three games. So there is a limitation where our players are not able to play continuously. They play one or two games, suffer a niggle and then we are forced to play a different plan that Gill did not originally play.”
If you have the World Cup as the goal, where we have to play 11 games in a row, and here we have players who could not finish a series of two or three games.
Shubman Gill
The late niggles, sometimes as late as the morning of the match, got more complicated.“So, bearing all this in mind, it becomes a bit difficult. You come to the ground in the morning and you know that a player has a niggle. So it’s almost like, do you want to take a chance? Some player is in 80% form, you play with five bowlers and if this player goes out after bowling five overs, then who bowls? This is difficult, and so, Gill needs to improve our fitness.As of July 20, Pandya, Reddy, Chakravarthy and Rana are at the facility in Bengaluru, and Sundar is expected to join the quartet to begin their rehabilitation. Except Reddy, the other four were part of India’s Champions Trophy winning team. Except for Rana, who was injured during the warm-up, the other four were also part of the group that won the T20 World Cup title 2026. Even two stalwarts, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, have recovered from their hamstring injuries. For India to go all the way to next year’s ODI World Cup, they need these five at peak fitness and must also ensure that the rest of the squad spends more time on the field than off it.