Shubman Gill ‘concerned’ with players reporting unfit after every two to three games

India’s ODI skipper Shubman Gill has criticised the injury breakdown of his bowlers after “every second or third game”, questioning whether they are taking their fitness seriously with a marathon tournament like World Cup coming up next year.

The Indians went down 1-2 to England in a three-match ODI series, losing by 27 runs in the deciding third game on Sunday (July 19, 2026). Before the start of the series, two pace bowling all-rounders — Hardik Pandya and Nitish Reddy — were ruled out due to injuries.

Budding bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana also sustained a hamstring tear during the T20I series, ruling him out of the ODIs. In the second ODI, Washington Sundar complained of hamstring injury while Jasprit Bumrah developed an impact injury in the second game and missed the series-decider.

“Yes, absolutely,” Gill admitted when asked if there are concerns about so many niggles. “If you look at the squad, the first squad that we announced, out of that, at least five players did not play this match. So one player gets injured, you try to play a different combination. There are two players, a different combination. But I think after every match, if a player is missing, somewhere we are missing a few tricks,” Gill put forth his point very clearly.

Gill’s concern is if players get injured within a couple of games, how can they play 11 games in South Africa next year if India go the distance. “If we keep the World Cup in mind, we have to play 11 matches in a row. And here the players are not even able to finish 2-3 series of matches. So somewhere it is missing that our players are not able to play matches continuously,” he seemed worried.

While he didn’t name the players, he was peeved that some of them reported unfit on the morning of the match. “They play one or two matches. If there is a niggle or something, then we are forced to play a different combination. So after seeing all these things, it is a bit difficult that one day in the morning, if you come to know that this player has a niggle, and then it is almost like, do you want to take a chance? “Someone is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers, it is difficult. But I think somewhere, as a group, I don’t know, our fitness or all those things need to be improved,” he concluded.