Follow UsIndia lost the first Test of the five-Test Anderson-Tendulkar trophy by five wickets despite being in a dominant position at many instances in the game. Speaking after the demoralising loss where England scored a record 352 on day five to win the game, the most by any team in 77 years, skipper Shubman Gill pointed fingers at India’s lower-order collapses and dropped catches.
“I think it was a brilliant Test match. We had our chances, we dropped catches and our lower-order didn't contribute enough, but I'm proud of the team and overall a good effort,” Gill said, remarking on collapses of 41/7 and 31/6 in the two innings and the plethora of dropped chances. However, he also remarked that it’s a young team and it will get better with time.
“Yesterday [day four] we were thinking around 430 odd and declare. Unfortunately, we didn't score runs at the end, which always makes it difficult. Just didn't go our way in this match. That was something we spoke out. It happened so quickly. Could be one of those things we have to rectify in the upcoming matches.," Gill added in the post-match presentation.
“Definitely chances don't come easy on wickets like these. It's a young team, learning one and hopefully we will be able to improve on those aspects. The first session we were quite spot on, didn't give away many runs. It's hard to stop the runs once the ball softens. Unfortunately some edges didn't go our way. They took their chances after the ball got old. That happens in a game of cricket. You expect that everything won't go your way.”
Additionally, when asked if India have pre-decided the Tests Jasprit Bumrah will feature in, he said that they’ll make a call on that before the next Test in Edgbaston.
“It's definitely more game by game. Once we are close to the match we will see,” the Indian skipper added.