Indian captain Shubman Gill has lamented the injuries suffered by his players in the recent ODI series against England and called for improved fitness in the squad. England won the third and final ODI at Lord’s Ground by 26 runs to pocket the series 2-1.

Ben Duckett’s 141 and half-centuries by Jacob Bethell (91) and Joe Root (74*) helped England post 387/3 in 20 overs. In response, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill (77) gave a good start to India, and Virat Kohli (74) built on it. But once Rohit fell for 138 runs, India lost the plot in front of a huge target and could only muster 360/7 and lost the game by 27 runs.

After the loss, Gill expressed his frustration at players not being able to last a 3-match series, admitting that it disrupted India's balance through the course of the series.

India had suffered a huge setback with Hardik Pandya and then Nitish Kumar Reddy suffering injuries before the tours of Ireland and England. Then Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar got injured during the series, and the biggest blow came when Jasprit Bumrah didn’t play the decider at Lord's due to an impact injury on his left knee suffered during the Cardiff ODI.

"If you look at the first squad that we announced, at least five of the players did not play today. When one player gets injured, you have to play a different combination. If two are injured, you play a different combination. I think if a player is missing after every match [due to injury], somewhere we are missing a trick. Keeping the World Cup in mind, we have to play eleven matches in a row. And here the players are unable to finish a series of two or three matches. So, something is missing somewhere.

They play one or two matches; there's a niggle, and then we're forced to play a different combination that we don't think of playing. So, all those things make it difficult if one morning you find out that a player has a niggle. And then it's almost like, 'Do you want to take a chance?' Someone is 80 percent fit; you're playing with five bowlers, and if he bowls five overs and goes off the field, then who will you bowl? It is difficult. But somewhere as a group, we need to improve our fitness,” Gill said during the post-match press conference.

Due to cramping, which returned at Lord's before he was dismissed for 77, Gill himself retired hurt while batting on 80 in the first ODI in Birmingham.

Kuldeep Yadav, who warmed the bench during the series, was one player affected by the injuries to the seam-bowling all-rounders. Gill, however, attributed his lack of selection at Lord's to the circumstances, claiming that the spinners had received little assistance in the previous two games.

"Whenever spinners came on to bowl, we felt like we kind of had to go into a defensive route. Whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening. That was the thought process behind not playing an extra spinner and maybe playing a fast bowler because in the middle overs, you obviously want to create pressure and see if the chances get created.

Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket, it got a bit slower. When we were bowling and when Axar [Patel] bhai was bowling, it didn't look like the wicket would get slower, but when they [England] came in to bowl, it did look like the wicket got a tad bit slower as the game went on," he added.

Gill summed up the series by saying that India had a "pretty decent series" overall but that they needed to become more astute in evaluating situations, citing the number of runs they gave up on Sunday with the new ball.

"In both the matches that we have lost, we were in the game for the majority of the game. And I think it's all about how long we can stay consistently in the game. It almost feels like we are in the game for about 80 percent of the game,” Gill added.

Shubman Gill also talked about Rohit Sharma, who made a brilliant 138 runs for India, and rumors of his retirement after the Lord’s ODI.

"He's not told us anything. I think it's all out in the media. But there has not been any discussion like that. Most of the time I was at the non-striker's end watching. Our conversation was mostly that if we keep wickets in hand, only then will we have a chance of chasing a big score like that. We were discussing whether to hit it out in the power play or not, but hitting the new ball wasn't easy. And I think the way he paced his innings and accelerated when he got to 60 or 70 was great to see,” Gill added.

(ANI inputs)