New Delhi, Oct 14 India captain Shubman Gill said it is a ‘great honour for him to lead the Test side after sealing his first series win as the skipper through a 2-0 series win over West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. India chased down 121 in the first hour of day five to win by seven wickets and get 12 valuable World Test Championship points.
"It's a really big honour (to lead India), I'm kind of getting used to it. Managing all the players, leading this team is a great honour. It's about taking the right options in the given situation. I try to make the most probable decision in the given situation that we are in that game. And sometimes you have to take a bold decision, depending on which player can get you certain runs or can get you those wickets,” said Gill at the close of the game.
Gill explained the rationale behind enforcing the follow-on after India took a 270-run lead in the match. “We were around 300 runs ahead. We thought even if we scored like 500 runs and we have to get 6 or 7 wickets on day 5, it could be a tough day for us. So, that was the thought process.”
He also spoke about the importance of grooming Nitish Kumar Reddy for overseas challenges, though he didn’t get to bowl a ball in the match. “He didn't really get to bowl in this match. We don't want players to only play matches overseas. That puts a lot of pressure on the players. We want to groom certain players that we think can help us win matches overseas because that's been a challenge for us.”
On his own batting mindset as a number four, Gill said, “Batting is something that I've been doing since I was 3 or 4 years old. So, when I want to go out there, I just want to make decisions as a batsman. The one thing that you always strive for is how can you make your team win a match. And as a batsman, when I'm going out there, that's the only thought that I have.”
Looking ahead to the Australia white-ball tour, which starts on October 19 in Perth and marks Gill’s first assignment as ODI captain, the right-handed batter said with a smile, “It's a long flight, maybe we can plan on the flight.”
West Indies captain Roston Chase, meanwhile, found encouragement in his team’s spirited fightback despite the series defeat. “The positives for us in this match was that Campbell and Hope played well and scored hundreds. They fought for us, we batted 100 overs after a long time, that was another positive. Taking the game to the 5th day, that was great for us.”
Chase highlighted the planning that went into their second innings effort of 390, thanks to centuries from John Campbell and Shai Hope. “We were always discussing and trying to find ways how we could bat through those 80 overs. We came up with a lot of ideas, batting against spin, sweeping, using our feet, and it was just about the guys going out there and executing the plans we’d spoken about.”
He signed off by expressing confidence in the squad’s potential in future Tests. “I think the guys we have here are some of the best players in the Caribbean. So it’s just for us to use this last Test match as a stepping stone and a confidence booster going into the upcoming series. We just have to keep improving as much as we can from here.”
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