Gill would have preferred ODIs before T20Is on New Zealand tour

If it had been up to him, Shubman Gill would have scheduled the T20I series between the ODIs and the Tests during India's ongoing tour of New Zealand.

The two big events all teams are building up towards are the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June 2027 and the ODI World Cup in October-November 2027. Because of this, the India captain would have liked to have full-strength squads available for both the ODI and Test series in New Zealand. Instead, thanks to the short turnaround between these two series, India have rested their premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah for the entire ODI series, and will be without a number of their other Test players, including Gill, for the fourth and fifth ODIs.

"Both [the ODI and Test series] are very important," Gill said on the eve of the first ODI in Auckland. "If it was in my hands and all the players were fit, I would have liked to have all the players who we are looking at playing during the World Cup [for the full ODI series], but the two Test matches are also very important.

"If it had been one-day first, then T20, and then Test, we could have played all five [ODI] matches [with our strongest squad], but [we couldn't do this] because the gap between the one-day [series] and Test matches was very small."

South Africa's 2-1 win in their home Test series against Australia has increased the chances of India - who are presently fourth on the WTC table behind New Zealand, South Africa and Australia - making the WTC final next year. After their two Tests in New Zealand, India have five more Tests in this cycle, all against Australia at home in early 2027.

"The WTC scenario has become very interesting," Gill said. "The series that happened between Australia and South Africa was really interesting, and has balanced the table very nicely. Hopefully if we play well in the Test series here, and then we play Australia at home, so that gives us a chance of playing in the final.

"Both [the ODI and Test series] are very important, but unfortunately, because we are playing the one-dayers in between [the T20Is and Tests], the players in the Test team are having to miss the last two one-dayers."

One big concern for India in the lead-up to the 2027 World Cup is the fitness of their key seam-bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya, who has been out of action since IPL 2026 thanks to a series of injuries and niggles. The latest one was a shin injury that kept him out of India A's 50-overs series against Australia A last month.

"Firstly, I think he is a great player," Gill said of Hardik. "The qualities that he brings to the team, not many players in the world possess those qualities, to be able to have a fast-bowling allrounder who can bowl [in any phase] of the game, with the new ball, middle overs and death overs, and the kind of batting he has.

"It's been very unfortunate that he hasn't been able to play since the IPL, and yes we have had multiple conversations. He was supposed to play the India A matches [against Australia A], but just before that he had some niggles again, so hopefully he will be fit soon and he will play some domestic cricket, and then hopefully we will see him back in the side soon."

With the 2027 World Cup to be played predominantly on the bouncy pitches of South Africa, India have made an effort to try out a number of tall fast bowlers in their ODI squads over recent months, including Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana - who are both injured and out of the current series - and Gurnoor Brar. Gill said these bowlers were invaluable in the middle overs of ODI games.

"When the ball gets old, when there is not much seam or swing movement, then how do you challenge the batter?" Gill said. "You can challenge the batter either if there is something in the wicket - if the ball is seaming, then it becomes difficult for the batter to score - or you can challenge the batter with pace and bounce.

"So identifying the kind of bowlers that can make run-scoring difficult for the batters and that can give us the best opportunity to take wickets in the middle overs - that has been the thinking around trying someone like a Gurnoor or a Prasidh, which gives us a bit more than someone who is bowling at maybe 135 [kph] when the wicket is flat.

"I have played in the middle overs a lot and I have seen, if those bowlers can hit the right areas - obviously hitting the right areas is the key - if tall fast bowlers can hit the right areas, it is a lot more difficult to score runs than someone who is bowling at 135, 130 [kph].

"You have to be really precise with your shot-making. You have to be really on top of your game to be able to score against someone who is 140 [kph]-plus, who is 6'1", 6'2", 6'3". And there is a lot more risk when you are trying to score freely [against] that kind of bowler."