"Mistakes should not be so bad that you get completely out of game": Shubman Gill reflects on first test defeat against England

Birmingham [UK], July 1 (ANI): Heading into the second test against England at Edgbaston, Indian skipper Shubman Gill reflected on the first test defeat and emphasised the need to minimise mistakes against a strong team.
Ben Duckett's masterful 149 set the tone for a historic run chase as England chased down the target of 371 to defeat India by five wickets at Headingley. With the win, England take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series.
"We played well in many moments of the match, but in the moments that were not that good, we played very badly. When you play against such a team and you have to make sure that you are doing the right thing and your mistakes are not so bad that you get completely out of the game," Shubman Gill said in the pre-match press conference.
"And on Day 5, we all knew that it wouldn't be that easy, even though there was 350 score on the board. But there was not that much help in the wicket for the bowlers. We had to put in very consistently tight lines, which I think we did very well in the first session. They didn't score that many runs in the first hour and in the first session."
Gill said that the Duke's ball, as they get older, made scoring easier, and the lack of wickets prevented them from controlling the runs despite good, consistent bowling.
"We saw with Duke's ball, especially on this ground, that as the ball gets older, it becomes easier to make runs, and if you don't take out the wicket, it becomes very difficult to contain the runs. So we did good bowling, we did consistent bowling, but because we couldn't take wickets, we didn't get half chances," Gill said.
Gill reflected on the drop catches by Indian fielders and said it is not easy when you are constantly dropping catches, especially when the bowlers are creating chances.
"We dropped some catches in the whole period. It's not easy when you are constantly dropping catches, especially when the bowlers are creating chances. But I think overall, we had a lot of positives in the last match as well. I think they didn't lose any wickets in 200 runs," he added.
Gill also reflected on the learnings from the first test, "I could have had a 50-run worth more partnership out there with Rishabh. That was my learning from when I was batting. And when we were bowling, there were learnings like once the ball gets old and it's getting soft, there isn't much happening. So, how would you contain or how would you control the run flow, especially with the way they bat," Gill said.
Going into the second Test at Birmingham, India is trailing 0-1. During the last game, India failed to defend a 371-run target, despite having four fast bowling options in Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, and Mohammed Siraj, and only one spinner, Ravindra Jadeja.
The fast bowlers, except for Bumrah, leaked runs at a high economy, which ultimately cost India the match as much as their poor batting in the lower order.
India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)