‘It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we want to be able to play at our own intensity’

The chance to secure his first series win as India’s Test captain awaits Shubman Gill when the second Test against West Indies begins at the Arun Jaitley Stadium from Friday.

Having marched to victory by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the first Test, India’s desire to reestablish its dominance at home, following a defeat by New Zealand last year that halted a 12-year unbeaten streak, was off to a robust start against Roston Chase’s outfit.

With cricket in the Caribbean facing a host of problems on and off the turf, the likelihood of a turnaround in the national capital this week seems bleak.

Regardless of the gulf between the two outfits, Gill was certain on match eve that India’s intensity would not dip. “I don’t think your intensity drops depending on the opposition. It doesn’t matter who we are playing. We want to be able to play at our own intensity, and we want to win.

“When you are playing for India, you don’t need external motivation to up your intensity. We want to maintain our own standards,” the 26-year-old said in the pre-match interaction on Thursday.

If at all there are areas for the host to address, B. Sai Sudharsan’s indifferent start to his Test career and Nitish Kumar Reddy’s bit-part role in the opener merit some discussion. But with each of them, the think-tank is keen to take a long-term view.

“We believe that you have to see someone’s potential first and then see their game in its entirety,” Gill reasoned when asked specifically about Sai Sudharsan’s position. “Once you have given someone enough matches, then you can have a think over where he needs to learn. But as of now, we think he’s someone who can play for India at No. 3 for a very long time.”

In contrast to India’s previous Test series, against England, where every game went to the fifth day, the lopsided nature of last week’s duel has placed further scrutiny on West Indies’ future in the classical format.

“As a cricketing nation, if your red-ball base is very strong, you will automatically do well in ODIs and T20Is,” Gill weighed in on the crisis of the opposition. “I don’t know, but maybe their players’ focus is more on T20s and leagues. So if your focus is on that, and you forget the base from where the game has started, the struggle starts from there.”

Over the next five days, it is up to the West Indies to challenge that perception.