Asia Cup 2023: 'We're trying to improve our batting on slow pitches', says Shubman Gill after India's loss to Bangladesh

India opener Shubman Gill stood out among his team’s batters in their six-run loss to Bangladesh in a Super Four contest of the 2023 Asia Cup on Friday, and the youngster said that the team was trying to improve their batting on slow pitches.

The pitch at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium on Friday offered a lot of turn, which helped Bangladesh’s spinners restrict India to 259 after the Tigers posted 265 on board. Shakib Al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz shared four wickets between them.

India made as many as five changes for the match, that included resting the likes of Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, in order to give the reserves some game time.

Tilak Varma (5) made his ODI debut, while Suryakumar Yadav (26) and Ishan Kishan (5) also flopped.

Apart from Gill, only Axar Patel (42) could provide some sort of resistance to the chase, adding valuable partnerships with Gill and Shardul Thakur.

“It is definitely an area that we are trying to improve on. We had camp in Bangalore before coming here, and we were practicing on similar wickets,” Gill said at the post-match press conference.

“World Cup is such a long tournament as we go deeper into the tournament, the wicket tends to get slower,” added Gill.

Gill continued, saying that the Indian batters were looking to improve on their strike rotation.

“It is not easy for batsmen who are coming in to rotate the strike and minimise those dot balls. As a batting unit, we are looking to work on it,” he added.

According to Gill, even picking singles was difficult on a tricky Colombo pitch, which made the batters play their shots late.

“Taking singles was not easy on this wicket. So, we were trying to let the ball come to the bat because we get more runs square of the wicket on slow wickets. So, we were trying to play the ball late,” added the 25-year-old.

Gill admitted that the defeat to Bangladesh was a big learning curve for him.

“Sometimes, there is so much adrenaline when you are batting, you miscalculate. It was a miscalculation on my part.

“But when I got out and there was a lot of time left, and if I would have batted not that aggressive then we should have gotten over the line. But these are learnings, and fortunately this game wasn’t the final,” said Gill.

India will next take on Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final on Sunday, before shifting focus to the Australia ODI series ahead of the World Cup.