Ever since the 2021 Test series against England at home, the Indian management has employed rank turners, with most of the opposition teams handing the games and series to the hosts on a platter. However, the 2024 season saw India falling into its own trap as the Rohit Sharma-led side was whitewashed 3-0 at home by New Zealand. Be it Virat Kohli or Rohit, both Test captains were in favour of having rank turners, leading to even Indian batters not having enough runs when they played in their own backyard.
However, with both Rohit and Virat retiring from Tests and Shubman Gill taking over as the new Test captain, it looks like the management has opted to go in with a fresh approach and throw the turners strategy into the bin.
While speaking to the host broadcaster JioHotstar, Gill said that his team doesn’t want to win in 2-3 days, and hence they will try to have pitches that have something in them for all the parties involved. He said that his team just doesn’t want to have a trial by spin, as they also want to get reverse swing into the game.
Shubman, who oversaw India’s 2-2 draw against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, is leading the side for the first time in a home Test as the hosts square off against the West Indies in the first game of the two-match series at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
“We don’t want to win in 2–3 days. We know we have the best four spinners—Kuldeep, Jadeja, Axar and Washi. Any team coming to India knows two challenges: spin and reverse swing. We’ll test opposition in both areas, but our focus is good cricket,” said Gill.
‘New Zealand were well prepared’
Gill also candidly admitted that playing on rank turners contributed to India’s downfall against New Zealand, stating that the Kiwis were well-prepared as they entered the series after playing against Sri Lanka.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been playing on turners. Obviously, other teams also know what we are good at and what we need to work on. On such wickets, if a spinner bowls at 90–95 kph consistently, any batsman in the world will struggle. New Zealand had an advantage because they had played turners in Sri Lanka before coming here. We hadn’t,” said Gill.
The back-to-back series losses against New Zealand and Australia resulted in India not making the World Test Championship (WTC) for the first time, as the summit clash was eventually played between Australia and South Africa.
However, Gill has his eyes set on the 2027 WTC final. “We talk more about winning every series than WTC. But yes, if such a strong team doesn’t qualify, it would be disappointing,” said Gill.
