India ODI captain Shubman Gill struck a measured tone when asked about Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav’s struggles against New Zealand, offering a pragmatic take. Jadeja’s returns were modest: 43 runs in three innings at an average of 14.33 and no wickets across the three-game series — a rare blank for a player of his quality.

Even in the prior home series against South Africa he managed just one scalp in three matches. Gill noted Jaddu’s batting looked in touch but stressed a broader problem: several batters failed to convert starts into big, match-defining scores.

“Firstly, I think about Jaddu bhai. I don’t know how many matches he has played over the past couple of years, but in terms of his batting, he was looking in good touch,” Shubman Gill said. “That said, I think all of us batters, especially, were not able to convert the starts we got. Whenever you play in India, you usually see high-scoring matches, and if batters get starts but don’t convert them, at least two of them, it always becomes difficult.”

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Age and squad balance complicate Jadeja’s case. Approaching the twilight of his international career and with the 2027 World Cup on the horizon, competition from the likes of Axar Patel makes the selection debate increasingly tense for the selectors.

Kuldeep, meanwhile, claimed three wickets but was often under pressure from disciplined New Zealand batting. Gill defended the wrist-spinner’s credentials, pointing to Kuldeep’s recent consistency and his role as a genuine strike option. He added that short-term slumps are part of a bowler’s journey.

“Sometimes these things happen. Kuldeep has been bowling really well over the past couple of years and has always been a strike bowler for us,” Shubman Gill said. “It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to pick as many wickets as he would have liked, but in these kinds of series, you learn and you grow.”

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Gill’s balanced responses framed both players’ dips as temporary rather than terminal, urging patience as India fine-tunes its squad and searches for reliable performers ahead of bigger assignments. Selectors and fans alike will watch closely as both experienced campaigners seek form in upcoming domestic and international fixtures soon.