When the ball stops swinging, and pitches offer nothing off the surface, how do you trouble an international batter? For Shubman Gill, the formula is simple: sheer height, raw pace and steep bounce.On the eve of India’s opening ODI against New Zealand at the Eden Park, Auckland, the Indian skipper laid bare the blueprint behind India’s recent pace-bowling auditions, pegging tall, hit-the-deck quicks as a core priority with an eye on the 2027 World Cup in South Africa.“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…
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or you can challenge the batter with pace and bounce.”In recent times, several towering fast bowlers including Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and newcomer Gurnoor Brar have represented India in the 50-over scheme of things. “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 that 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 130-135. 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-plus and who is 6’1″, 6’2″, 6’3”. There is a lot more risk when you are trying to score freely against that kind of bowler,” Gill said.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.Calling Hardik’s skill set difficult to replace, Gill said the team had remained in touch with him and hoped he would return to domestic cricket before making his comeback to the national side.“Firstly, he is a great player,” Gill stressed. “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. Hopefully, we will see him back in the side soon.”The captain, however, would have preferred a different arrangement for the New Zealand tour, with the ODI series sandwiched between the T20Is and two Tests. The tight turnaround means several members of the Test squad, including Gill, will miss the fourth and fifth ODIs. Jasprit Bumrah, meanwhile, has been rested for the entire ODI series.With the ODI World Cup and the World Test Championship final both scheduled for 2027, Gill felt India could have benefited from having their strongest available combinations for both formats in the ongoing tour.“If it was in my hands and all the players were fit, I would have liked to have all the players we are looking at playing during the World Cup for the full ODI series. But the two Test matches are also very important,” he said.
