India captain Shubman Gill called for an improvement in fitness within the squad after a spate of injuries hampered the visitors during their 2-1 ODI series defeat to England. Gill expressed his frustration at players not being able to last a 3-match series, admitting that it disrupted India's balance through the course of the series.

India were laid low by a host of injuries - some even before the series began. Their combination suffered a major setback when all-rounder Hardik Pandya picked up a quadriceps strain at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence while undergoing rehab for a back injury. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pandya's immediate backup, was ruled out after suffering a quadriceps injury himself, while Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar both picked up hamstring injuries at different stages of the tour.

The biggest blow ahead of the decider at Lord's was Jasprit Bumrah's unavailability due to an impact injury on his left knee sustained during the second game in Cardiff. His absence was deeply felt as India's lesser experienced seamers failed to plug the scoring rate, with England surging to a score of 387.

"If you look at the first squad that we announced, at least five of the players did not play today," Gill said after the Lord's ODI.

"When one player gets injured, you have to play a different combination. If two are injured, you play a different combination. I think if a player is missing after every match (due to injury), somewhere we are missing a trick. Keeping the World Cup in mind, we have to play eleven matches in a row. And here the players are unable to finish a series of two or three matches. So something is missing somewhere.

"They play one or two matches, there's a niggle and then we're forced to play a different combination which we don't think of playing. So all those things make it difficult if one morning you find out that a player has a niggle. And then it's almost like, 'do you want to take a chance?' Someone is 80 per cent fit, you're playing with five bowlers and if he bowls five overs and goes off the field, then who will you bowl? It is difficult. But somewhere as a group, we need to improve our fitness," he said.

Incidentally, Gill himself retired hurt while batting on 80 in the first ODI in Birmingham due to a bout of cramps - something that relapsed at Lord's before he was dismissed for 77.

One player who was impacted by injuries to the seam-bowling all-rounders was Kuldeep Yadav, who warmed the bench throughout the series. However, Gill put his non-selection at Lord's down to the conditions, stating that there was little help for the spinners in the two games prior.

"Whenever spinners came on to bowl, we felt like we kind of had to go into a defensive route. Whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening," Gill said. "That was the thought process behind not playing an extra spinner, maybe play a fast bowler because in the middle overs, you obviously want to create pressure and see if the chances get created.

"Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket it got a bit slower. When we were bowling and when Axar [Patel] bhai was bowling it didn't look like the wicket will get slower, but when they came into bowl, it did look like the wicket got a tad bit slower as the game went on," he added.

Summing up the series overall, Gill reckoned that India had a "pretty decent series", but felt they needed to become smarter in assessing conditions, citing the volume of runs they leaked with the new ball on Sunday.

"Both the matches that we have lost, we were in the game for the majority of the game," Gill said. "And I think it's all about how long we can stay consistently in the game. It almost feels like we are in the game for about 80 per cent of the game."

He has not told us anything: Gill on Rohit's future

Much of the talk heading into the Lord's ODI revolved around Rohit Sharma's future, with speculation rife of the fixture turning into his swansong. Rohit responded with his 34th ODI hundred, two days after BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia quashed those speculations and Gill too declared that there has been no such indication from his predecessor.

"He's not told us anything. I think it's all out in the media. But there has not been any discussion like that," Gill said, while praising Rohit's 138-run knock that put India on course for a historic chase.

"Most of the time I was at the non-striker's end watching. Our conversation was mostly that if we keep wickets in hand, only then we would have a chance of chasing a big score like that. We were discussing whether to hit out in the Powerplay or not but hitting the new ball wasn't easy. And I think the way he paced his innings and accelerated when he got to 60 or 70 was great to see."