Shubman Gill, the captain of India, expressed dissatisfaction with his team's performance in Sunday's series finale against New Zealand at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
Asking New Zealand to bat first, Shubman Gill made a blunder, as teams batting first had won 6 games out of 8 before this encounter. Despite losing an early wicket, New Zealand did well as Daryl Mitchell (137) and Glenn Phillips (106) added 219 runs for the fourth wicket.
Captain Michael Bracewell provided the perfect finish, scoring 28* as New Zealand posted 337/8 in 50 overs. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana picked three wickets each for India.
India lost both the openers for 45 runs on the board, while Virat Kohli anchored one end. The Indian middle failed to fire as Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul fell for single-digit scores. Kohli made important partnerships with Nitish Kumar Reddy (53) and Harshit Rana (52) to keep India in the game.
The great man himself made 124 with 10 fours and 3 sixes but was dismissed with India needing almost 50 runs. In the end, India was bowled out for 296 runs in 46 overs and lost the game by 41 runs.
New Zealand registered a 2-1 ODI series win, their first-ever in India since 1988. Daryl Mitchell won the Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards.
Shubman, who scored half-centuries in the first two ODIs, struggled in the last encounter, losing his wicket to Kyle Jamieson after scoring only 23 runs. Speaking to the host broadcaster, Gill expressed disappointment that his squad did not perform to its full ability in such an important game.
This was the second series loss for Gill, the ODI captain, as he had previously lost Down Under as well. Fair to say, it has been a trial by fire for the 26-year-old at the helm.
“After the first match, coming here 1-1. The way we played was a bit disappointing. A lot of areas need some improvement. There are areas where we need to look back and reflect and do things better,” Shubman Gill said at the post-match presentation.
“The way Virat Bhai is batting, that is definitely a plus always. The way Harshit has batted in this series, batting at No. 8 is not easy, but the way he stepped up and the way our fast bowlers have bowled in this series was very good,” he added.
Shubman Gill stated that Nitish Kumar Reddy will be given further opportunities as the team management looks at home to fill the pace-bowler role in the ICC World Cup 2027 that will be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
“Keeping the World Cup in mind and where it is going to be, we want to give Nitish Kumar Reddy opportunities, and we want to give him enough overs when he is out there. We want to see which combinations work for us,” said Gill.
India and New Zealand will now clash in a series of five T20Is that begin on January 21.
