India captain Shubman Gill described it as a “great honour” to lead the side to a 2-0 series victory over the West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday. India wrapped up the match inside the first hour of the fifth day, chasing down a target of 121 to secure a seven-wicket win and bag 12 World Test Championship points.
“It’s a really big honour (to lead India), I’m kind of getting used to it. Managing all the players, leading this team is a great honour,” Gill said after the win. “It’s about taking the right options in the given situation. I try to make the most probable decision in the given situation that we are in that game. And sometimes you have to take a bold decision, depending on which player can get you certain runs or can get you those wickets.”
He also shed light on his decision to enforce the follow-on after India had built a commanding 270-run lead. “We were around 300 runs ahead. We thought even if we scored like 500 runs and we have to get 6 or 7 wickets on day 5, it could be a tough day for us. So, that was the thought process,” he explained.
The young skipper also spoke about grooming all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy for future overseas challenges, even though the youngster didn’t get a bowl in the Delhi Test. “He didn’t really get to bowl in this match. We don’t want players to only play matches overseas. That puts a lot of pressure on the players. We want to groom certain players that we think can help us win matches overseas because that’s been a challenge for us,” Gill said.
Analysing his batting approach at No. 4, Gill said his focus remains firmly on contributing to team victories.
“Batting is something that I’ve been doing since I was 3 or 4 years old. So, when I want to go out there, I just want to make decisions as a batsman. The one thing that you always strive for is how can you make your team win a match. And as a batsman, when I’m going out there, that’s the only thought that I have,” he said.
Looking ahead, Gill’s next assignment as ODI captain begins with the white-ball tour of Australia, starting October 19 in Perth. With a grin, he said, “It’s a long flight, maybe we can plan on the flight.”
On the other side, West Indies captain Roston Chase chose to draw positives from his team’s improved batting performance despite the series loss.
“The positives for us in this match was that Campbell and Hope played well and scored hundreds. They fought for us, we batted 100 overs after a long time, that was another positive. Taking the game to the 5th day, that was great for us,” Chase said.
He credited his side’s second-innings total of 390 to their planning and execution against spin. “We were always discussing and trying to find ways how we could bat through those 80 overs. We came up with a lot of ideas, batting against spin, sweeping, using our feet, and it was just about the guys going out there and executing the plans we’d spoken about,” he said.
Concluding on an optimistic note, the West Indies skipper expressed faith in his squad’s potential. “I think the guys we have here are some of the best players in the Caribbean. So it’s just for us to use this last Test match as a stepping stone and a confidence booster going into the upcoming series. We just have to keep improving as much as we can from here,” he said.