Shubman Gill, Gautam Gambhir
Because of the red ball, “I wanted to get four or five extra sessions before I joined the team, mainly. Because i haven’t played a Test match here, i wanted to come here, work a little bit on my game, and see how the red ball is.
I’ve played a couple of India A matches but haven’t really played that much Test cricket here,” Gill said.
India have already taken a 1-0 advantage in the five-match ODI series following their victory in the rain-hit opening match in Auckland on Wednesday. The visitors successfully chased a revised DLS target of 143 to get their campaign off to a winning start. Usually, whenever we play in South Africa or in New Zealand or in Australia, we play around December, January and the World Cup being in October and November, so I think the conditions are going to be a lot more similar, and it’s going to be a really good experience for us,” Gill said in a video released by BCCI on X.
India captain Shubman Gill believes the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand could play an important role in the team’s preparations for next year’s World Cup, with the conditions during the current tour expected to offer a glimpse of what awaits them at the global tournament. With the World Cup scheduled for October-November next year, Gill feels playing in New Zealand in early November will give the Indian players a chance to experience conditions similar to those they could encounter during the competition. “The conditions that we’re going to get here are going to be a lot more similar to the ones that we’re going to get in the World Cup, especially playing here in early November. The India skipper also spoke about his decision to arrive ahead of the rest of the squad. Gill wanted additional practice time, particularly with the red ball, as he looked to get a better understanding of the conditions in the country. The batter admitted that he had limited experience playing Test cricket in New Zealand and wanted to use the extra sessions to work on his game.