‘Preparation for me is really big’ - Shubman Gill expects adequate planning ahead of Test series

India’s Test and ODI captain, Shubman Gill, has stressed that the national team needs proper time for preparation before every red-ball series, to be able to compete consistently for the World Test Championship's

ongoing 2025-27 cycle, where India are at the seventh position currently after winning only four games out of nine thus far.

Gill highlighted how the tight scheduling of international series recently has left little room for preparation, especially in the longest format of the game. India played the West Indies at home for a two-match series just after the Asia Cup, with only 4 days in between. Even before the series against South Africa, the Indian team had got less than a week's time to prepare, as the majority of players had returned from Australia. 

"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. It's not easy playing another match in a different country and then playing in India on the fourth day. Especially when you're traveling on long tours,” said Gill during the pre-match press conference ahead of the first ODI.

He further stated that even if India had won against the Proteas, the broader issues would not have changed because real success in the five-day format starts with adequate preparation and planning with respect to time. 

"I feel even if we would have won the series against South Africa, it still wouldn't have made that much of a difference [in terms of adequate preparation] 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 didn'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,” he concluded. 

After being undefeated at home for more than a decade, India have suffered two home whitewashes in Tests at home, with series losses against New Zealand and South Africa, respectively. So, this is the right step to take forward, if India wants to stay alive in the 2027 WTC Final's race.