Shubman Gill voices frustration over fitness issues in Team India, following 2-1 series loss to England

India's ODI captain Shubman Gill is unhappy with the overall fitness standards in the team and believes that the lack of first-choice players led to the 2-1 loss against England.

India were forced to enter the series decider at Lord's on Sunday without Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar. While Bumrah suffered a knee injury while fielding in the second ODI, Sundar was ruled out with a left hamstring injury.

The Men in Blue also didn't have the services of Harshit Rana, who suffered a hamstring injury in the T20I series against the Three Lions and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Reddy hurt his quadriceps during the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan at home and was ruled out of the entire UK tour.

Gill said those injuries disrupted the team's playing combination and influenced results on the field, which didn't go their way. He called for improvement in fitness, as it is becoming a recurring theme.

"If you look at the first squad we had announced [for the England ODI series], from that minimum five players did not play this match," Gill said after India's defeat at Lord's in the series decider. "If one player is injured you look at playing another combination, two players are injured you look at playing another combination, but if after every match some player is missing then somewhere we are missing a trick.

"If you keep the World Cup as the goal where we have to play 11 matches in a row and here we have players not being able to finish a two-to-three-match series. So there is some limitation where our players are not being able to play continuously, they play one or two matches, they suffer a niggle and then we are forced to play a different combination which we originally did not plan to play.

"So keeping all this mind it becomes a little difficult that you come to the ground on the morning and you come to know a player has a niggle, then it's almost like do you want to take a chance? Some player is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers and if this player comes out after bowling five overs, then who will bowl? This is difficult. So as a group we need improved our fitness and all those things."