India conceded 337/8 after opting to bowl first in the series-decider.
Opting to bat first, the hosts got early breakthroughs as Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana dismissed Henry Nicholls and Devon Conway respectively in the first two overs. However, the visitors fought back on the back of centuries from Daryl Mitchell (137 off 131) and Glenn Phillips (106 off 88).
As the Black Caps pair stitched together a brilliant 219-run partnership, it seemed like Gill was out of ideas. In fact, wicketkeeper KL Rahul was seen moving the fielders around during the death overs.
“I know that Shubman Gill is just learning the art of captaincy. But there's a lot, even now KL Rahul is chatting to Arshdeep down there as if to say, these are jobs that vice captains do," Smith said on-air.
“Shubman Gill is now coming down to long off, which basically takes him out of the play. You've got to be part of the action as the captain, particularly when your team is under pressure,” he added.
Smith also acknowledged the difficulty for Gill in leading a side having senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit and Rahul.
“I appreciate this as a young player. This is a hard team to captain because of the people around you within the group who have been former captains, most of them as well,” said Smith.
“You've got Rahul, you've got Virat Kohli, of course, you've got Rohit Sharma. You've got Shreyas Iyer, you've got senior players around you. And it's not always easy to take charge effectively,” he remarked.
Coming to the match, New Zealand recovered from a shaky start to rack up a formidable 337/8 in their allotted 50 overs at the Holkar Cricket Stadium. Stand-in skipper Michael Bracewell produced a stunning cameo of 28* in 18 balls.
Arshdeep Singh was the pick of the Indian bowlers, returning with the figures of 3 for 63 in his 10 overs.