India suffered a five-wicket defeat to England in the first Test at Headingley. Ahead of the marquee series, the Indian team management indicated that ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah might only play three Test matches, as the goal is to manage his workload. India is expected to get the job done in Bumrah’s presence, but in the first match itself, the visitors suffered a defeat. In the first innings, the ace pacer clinched a five-wicket haul and in the second, he did well but went wicketless.
Interestingly, towards the fag end of the match, when India opted for a new ball, Gill was expected to hand the ball to Bumrah for a final chance. However, the newly-appointed captain didn’t and instead chose Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja. That once again raised doubts about the future of Bumrah in the series and when asked about that, Gill noted that the team management will take a call before the second Test.
“It's decided game-by-game. Once we're close to the next game after a long break, we'll see,” Gill said in the post-match presentation.
Drop catches, lower not contributing cost us: Gill
India’s lower order struggled heavily with the bat in both innings, while the fielders had a rough time in the middle. Yashashvi Jaiswal dropped four catches in the match, while Jadeja dropped one. The others too wasn’t up to the standard and that is one area Gill believes that the team needs to improve in.
"A brilliant Test, we had our chances. Drop catches, lower not contributing cost us. Yesterday, we were thinking of giving them 430, but our last wickets fell for 25. Even today, I thought we had our chances after the brilliant first wicket. Didn't go to hand. We spoke about the first-inns collapse, happens, we have to rectify that going forward. Chances don't come easy on wickets like this, but we have a young team. Learning one. Hope to improve that,” Gill said.