India defeated the West Indies in the second Test in New Delhi to clean-sweep the series 2-0. They put on a huge total of 518 and 5 and declared the innings, thanks to centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. In reply, West Indies could only manage 248 in their first innings.
The Indian team then decided to enforce the follow-on, but in the second innings, the Caribbean batters showed grit and they scored 390 to give India a target of 121 in the fourth innings. Though it was chased comfortably, many experts criticised India’s decision of not batting in the third innings.
After the win, captain Gill explained the reason behind enforcing the follow on in the post-match presentation. “We were around 300 runs ahead. We thought even if we scored like 500 runs and we have to get 6 or 7 wickets on day 5, it could be a tough day for us. So, that was the thought process,” he said.
Though Nitish Kumar Reddy scored 43 in this match, he did not get the chance to bowl a single over. Gill said that they are grooming him and giving him confidence ahead of overseas asssigments.
“He didn’t really get to bowl in this match. We don’t want players to only play matches overseas. That puts a lot of pressure on the players. We want to groom certain players that we think can help us win matches overseas because that’s been a challenge for us.” he said.
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