Team Indiaare all set to take on the West Indies in the first Test to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium from October 2. Shubman Gill will be seen holding reins of the side again after a couple of months. The 26-year-old proved himself as a skipper with his performance in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 and he will endeavour to take his form ahead in the home series against the West Indies. It will be India’s first home Test series after facing a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand last year. Gill and his men are expected to be disciplined in all departments of the game to hammer the visitors in the series to be played from October 2.
A day ahead of the contest, when Gill appeared in a pre-match presser, he was asked about India’s playing
XI. Replying to the query, the right-handed batter said that the team hasn’t prepared the playing XI yet but stressed on playing with three seamers. "You will get to know our playing XI combination tomorrow. Given the current weather conditions, we would be tempted to have a third seam option, but I think there is still some time in the Test. Once we arrive tomorrow morning and assess the moisture level on the pitch, we will make a decision," said Gill.
Team India looking forward to playing hard-grinding cricket
During the press conference, Gill also disclosed that India are looking to play hard-grinding cricket. "We are looking to play some hard, grinding cricket. “If you look at the past few years, the Test match in India doesn't really go up to five days, so we are looking to play some hard cricket. All the Test matches in England went pretty deep. We won't be looking for any easy out options, and we have got the skill set to play on any kind of wicket and in any situation,” added Gill.
This year has been tremendous for Gill as a Test batter. Showing up in six games, he scored 787 runs with four hundreds at an average of 65.58 in 12 innings. As skipper and batter, his responsibility will be to maintain his form to help India beat West Indies and South Africa at home.
