India captain Shubman Gill was highly critical of the poor bowling and fielding performance from the Men in Blue players in the recent three-ODI series against West Indies. India won the series 2-1 by winning the first two matches in Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati.
The third ODI was played in New Chandigarh and saw India win the toss and bat first. India struggled a bit, but thanks to Rohit Sharma’s 92 and KL Rahul’s stupendous 129*, they put 351/7 in 50 overs. In response, Windies captain Shai Hope made 162*, and Amir Jangoo’s 67 helped them win the game by 5 wickets.
After the loss in the third match, India skipper Shubman Gill minced no words and stated that the poor outing with the ball in the powerplay became the root cause of the defeat.
"I think bowling in the powerplay and in the death has been something that has hurt us. And if you don't get off to a good start in the powerplay, as we have seen in the middle overs, it's not easy to take wickets. It's not easy to create chances with only four fielders being outside. The intensity of the game, which it goes at, becomes completely different if you don't take, if you don't keep taking wickets in either the powerplay or in the middle overs," said Gill during the post-match press conference.
"And, you know, that's the reason why this series has been so high-scoring, because it's been difficult for the bowlers to take wickets in the middle overs. Even today, we lost two wickets in the powerplay, but we still managed to get 350 on the board," he added.
Gill went on to discuss the missed catches and how Shai Hope took the win away from India.
"I don't know how many; I think we dropped around three or four catches today. And I don't know if Shai Hope was dropped, but still dropping three or four catches breaks the momentum of the team. Our fielding in the series, I would say, has not been up to the mark. I think in the whole series, we dropped around seven catches, if I'm not wrong. And even in the field today, we gave away many, many runs," said Gill.
"We were quite sloppy. And I think, leading up to the World Cup, these are the areas where we definitely need to get better at. We need to be at the peak of our powers, especially when we're in the field. It's not easy for the bowlers, so the fielders can help a lot. And if the wicket is not helping much for the bowlers and our fielding is sub-standard, it's a difficult job for the bowlers," he added.
Shubman Gill and India’s next ODI assignment will be in New Zealand, where the side plays five games in an all-format tour in November-December.
(PTI inputs)
