Shubman Gill would like India’s fixture list to breathe a little. Fresh from a month without international cricket, the Test and ODI captain looked back at last year’s cramped calendar and wondered why change-overs from white-ball to red-ball cricket were so tight.
India’s men finished the Asia Cup final in Dubai on 28 September, then opened a home Test series against West Indies on 2 October. Six weeks later the side wrapped up a T20I in Australia on 8 November and were back in whites against South Africa on 14 November. The hosts lost that rubber 2-0, only their second home series defeat in 12 years.
Asked in Vadodara on the eve of the first ODI against New Zealand if he had passed feedback to the BCCI, Gill did not mince words.
“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,” he said. “It’s not easy playing another match in a different country and then playing in India on the fourth day. Especially when you’re travelling on long tours.”
Preparation, Gill argued, cannot be faked by momentum alone. “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 would prefer at least a week, ideally more, between formats. “I think it’s important to at least have some bit of preparation, some time [to prepare]. Especially when changing from white-ball format to red-ball. So this was one of the things that I was very keen on, and 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.”
The current schedule is lopsided. India went 22 days without a game over the year-end yet had little more than 72 hours to switch formats twice last autumn. Gill, one of the few to play all three formats regularly, believes the workload is sustainable only with sensible gaps.
“Maybe it would be easier to have a little loose calendar,” he suggested. “I don’t think in 2016, 2017, 2018, there was a time when if you’re coming from another country [back] to India, 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 breather for the players as well, and it gives you that time to prepare and feel confident for the next series.”
Coaching staff echo the sentiment privately. One member of the support team pointed out that Test-match practice is not simply about batting time in the nets. “Adjusting from a Kookaburra to an SG ball, or vice-versa, takes three-four days on its own. Add travel, add jet lag, and you’re basically running into day one of a Test still in T20 mode,” he said.
The schedule crunch may also have contributed to Gill’s neck injury during the first Test against South Africa, an incident that effectively turned the contest into ten versus eleven. Medical staff have conceded they cannot prove a direct link, yet acknowledge that accumulated fatigue is rarely helpful.
Gill himself is currently outside India’s squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup, so his own workload will ease for a while. Even so, he insists the broader issue matters more than individual selections. Several team-mates, he noted, juggle the same demands and risk similar burnout.
Selectors and administrators do have some room to manoeuvre. The next ICC Future Tours Programme allows boards to space bilateral series at their discretion, provided broadcast commitments are honoured. One board official said informal talks have already started. “Nobody wants India turning up under-prepared, least of all broadcasters,” he quipped.
Analysts back Gill’s call for longer lead-ins. Former India opener Aakash Chopra pointed out that England rarely play a Test less than a week after arriving overseas. “Even a short turnaround can work if you’re going from Bangalore to Chennai, but not from Perth to Ranchi,” he said.
For now, Gill’s plea is simple: keep the players fresh and give them time to shift gears. The 24-year-old insists the goal is as much about quality cricket as physical welfare. Whether the calendar obliges is a question for boardrooms, but the dressing-room message is clear—preparation trumps haste.
