India’s newly-appointed Test captain Shubman Gill has said that Team India were open to sacrificing batting depth in favour of a more strong bowling attack, even if it meant going in with just six batters and four tailenders as well. However, they could opt for batting insurance by fielding Ravindra Jadeja along with two other all-rounders, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy, as well.

“Yes, definitely. You can’t win a Test match without taking 20 wickets no matter how many runs you score,” Shubman Gill said at Headingley on Thursday (June 19). “So that has been one of our key discussion points, you know, how are we going to take 20 wickets and there might be a case where we would only be going with six batters and we would see a bowling all-rounder and three to four fast bowlers or proper bowlers.”

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However, Shubman Gill also looked back to India’s 4-1 win at home against England in early 2024, a scoreline that showed how tight some of those contests were.

“Sir, the blueprint that we got from our seniors in the last 5-10 years, we can win anywhere and we will try to follow that same confidence and blueprint,” Gill said. “And as I said, if your team has a very good environment, players feel very secure and confident and they know what their role is. So we want to create that environment in the team. And if we succeed in creating that environment, I think our Test series and the WTC cycle will be very successful.”

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“After Virat bhai retired, me and GG bhai [Gambhir] had a discussion about it and we were both clear that he wanted me to be at number four and I was also clear that I also wanted to be at that number. Honestly, when I want to go out there and bat, I just want to play as a batsman and not really want to think that I’m the captain of the game because I think that sometimes puts too much pressure on me. Whenever I’m going out there, I want to play as a batsman and want to dominate the opposition and be the best batsman in the series. And that’s what I’m trying to look at,” Shubman Gill concluded.