India Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill has accepted that he suggested to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that there should be preparatory camps before certain Test series, especially
if they follow a tour of another country. This idea, which was reported by some media houses a few days ago, had spurred a debate on social media, with some believing that it was impractical in this time of packed schedules.
There were just six days between the white-ball tour of Australia, which ended with a five-T20I series in November, and the start of the home Test series against South Africa. Only three days separated the T20 Asia Cup final against Pakistan and the home Test series against the West Indies.
“One of the suggestions that I was very keen on is, if you would see in the last two Test series that we played, we didn’t have that much time to prepare,” Gill said in a pre-series press conference ahead of New Zealand ODIs. “It’s not easy playing in India, and playing another match in a different country on the fourth day, especially when you are travelling on long tours. Even if we had won the series against South Africa, it still wouldn’t have made that much of a difference, because we know we need to prepare well to be able to win Test matches all over the world.”
“Preparation for me is really big, and I don’t think that we had that much time to prepare when we came back from Australia, or even after the Asia Cup when we played the West Indies series. It’s important to at least have some bit of preparation, especially when changing from white-ball format to red-ball. I think we’ll take some action and we’ll keep it in mind to be able to prepare well before the start of any red-ball series.”
When asked what it means for multi-format players, Gill doubled down on his argument.
“Maybe it would be easier to have a looser calendar. I don’t think in 2016-2018, there was a time when if you’re coming from another country, you’re playing a match on the fourth day. Maybe it’s easier to play a match on the 10th day. Maybe it’s easier to play a match on the 12th day. It gives a bit of rest for the players as well and gives you that time to prepare and feel confident for the next series,” he said.
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