'We Didn't Have Much Time To Prepare': Shubman Gill Blames Gruelling Schedules For India's Poor Form In Test

India vs New Zealand: Team Indian Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill has spoken about the need for a more balanced international calendar, stressing that players require adequate rest and preparation time, especially while switching formats and travelling across countries.

Gill felt that the current schedule leaves little room for recovery, something that wasn't the case a few years ago.

Highlighting how tightly packed tours have become, he said, "Maybe it would be easier to have a little loose calendar. Maybe it would be easier. I don't think in 2016, 2017, 2018, there was a time when if you are coming from another country to here, you are playing a match on the fourth day. Maybe it is easier to play a match on the tenth day. Maybe it is easier to play a match on the twelfth day. It gives a bit of a breather for the players as well and it gives you that time to prepare and feel confident for the next series."

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The India skipper pointed out that preparation time has been a major concern in recent Test series, particularly when the team has had to move quickly from one country to another.

"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 is 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," he added.

Gill added that results alone should not mask the underlying issue.

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"Yes, I feel even if we would have won the series against South Africa, it still wouldn't have made that much of a difference because we need to prepare well to be able to win Test matches all over the world," he explained.

Emphasising the importance of preparation, especially while transitioning from white-ball cricket to red-ball formats, Gill said the lack of training time has been evident in recent assignments.

"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 noted.

"I think it is important to at least have some bit of preparation, sometimes, especially 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 will take some action and we will keep it in mind to be able to prepare well before the start of any red ball series," he added.