Gill: 'We are a gun team, and we have gun players'
Siraj took three of the last four wickets on the fifth morning to seal an epic win at The Oval
ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-20255:30
‘Such moments make you feel that the journey is worth it’
India captain Shubman Gill has said his team was “pretty confident” of taking the remaining four wickets on the final morning at The Oval to square the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.Late rain on day four dragged the game into the fifth day, leaving England needing 35 runs and India four wickets. Mohammed Siraj picked up three of the four to seal a stunning win.”Yeah, we were pretty confident,” Gill said at the post-match presentation. “Even yesterday, we knew that they [England] are a little bit under pressure. We just wanted to make sure that they’re feeling the pressure throughout. Pressure makes everyone do things that they don’t want to, and we just wanted to make sure that they’re feeling the pressure throughout.Related
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“I think the way both the teams played in the entire series, every day coming on day four, day five, and never really knowing which team is going to win… it shows that both the teams came up with their A game and very happy to get over the line in this one.”Joe Root had said that the use of a heavy roller would benefit England on the fifth morning, but Siraj and Prasidh Krishna worked in tandem to give no respite to Jamie Smith and the tail.”When bowlers like Siraj and Prasidh are bowling like that then 35 runs is also too much,” Gill said at the post-match press conference. “As a batsman, you are under pressure as you feel the ball is doing something and it takes just one ball. And that is what we were reminding them about frequently. If the conditions are like this and the momentum is with you, then 30-35 runs is enough, then you know it is a matter of one or two balls falling in the right place and the game will get over there and then.”Gill said that India never thought about taking the second new ball, considering the movement both his strike bowlers had been getting since day four. “Also, we had the wicket-taking option on this wicket,” Gill said. “If they had to make the runs, they would need to score boundaries. We knew they were under pressure because in such a position the batting team is under pressure because it is matter of one ball.”Having been left heartbroken after he was the last man dismissed in the Lord’s Test last month, Siraj finished the game this time with the ball, when his pinpoint yorker uprooted Gus Atkinson’s off stump. Siraj put in a big shift, with his 30.1 overs in the fourth innings bringing him five wickets.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”Yes, definitely, he’s a captain’s dream”, Gill said of Siraj. “Coming in five Test matches, every ball, every spell that he bowled gave his all out, and every captain, every team wants a player like him. We are very fortunate to have him in our team.”While Siraj won the Player-of-the-Match award, Gill was chosen as India’s Player of the Series by the opposition coach Brendon McCullum for his chart-topping 754 runs in ten innings at an average of 75.40. Gill’s series aggregate is the second-highest for a captain behind Don Bradman’s 810 against England in the 1936-37 Ashes. No other batter has scored more runs in a series between England and India, going past Graham Gooch’s 752 runs in 1990.”Feels very rewarding,” Gill said. “I worked pretty hard before the start of the series. There were certain things that I wanted to work on as a batsman, and it was my goal to be able to be the best batter of the series. And to be able to accomplish that goal feels very satisfying and very rewarding.”I think once you are sorted mentally, you would be in a good space. But you’re only sorted mentally when you’re feeling technically correct. So, I think they’re both kind of correlated. If you feel like you’re getting in good positions, you’re always mentally more stable.”3:49
Bangar: Series result proves India is growing in stature
‘We want to be looked as a gun team’Having started the new WTC cycle with a series-levelling win, India are currently third on the table with 28 points in five matches. “This series was very important for us because the kind of maturity every player would feel [at] the end of the series would really help us in the long run in this WTC cycle,” Gill said.Asked if he would have felt the same had England chased the target, Gill admitted that his “feelings would definitely be slightly different”.”I think the scorecard of the series could not have really depicted what kind of cricket we played,” he said. “But this scorecard of the series that we have right now really shows how both teams played. This win was important for us to be able to get that morale high, especially after the kind of cricket that we have played over the course of two months.”When Gill’s India had landed in the United Kingdom in June, there were several questions asked – whether his team had the experience and the personnel to challenge Ben Stokes’ men. Two months later, India depart with the series shared. Gill credited head coach Gautam Gambhir for building the confidence of the team.”At the start of the series Gauti [Gambhir] said: ‘yes, we are a young team, but we don’t want to be looked as a young team; we want to be looked as a gun team’. And the way we played it today showed us that why we are a gun team, and we have gun players like him [Siraj] in our team and that’s what makes this team so special.”