In a dramatic change for Indian cricket, Shubman Gill has been named India's new ODI captain in place of Rohit Sharma, for the impending white-ball tour of Australia on October 19. The decision marks a new leadership regime, with Gill set to take India to the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
The BCCI selection panel, led by Ajit Agarkar, made the announcement on Saturday following a meeting with head coach Gautam Gambhir. In addition to Gill's elevation, Shreyas Iyer was appointed vice-captain of the ODI team. Iyer had recently declined red-ball cricket for limited-overs cricket.
Justifying the move, Agarkar said it was part of long-term planning.
“Rohit Sharma has been communicated about the change of captaincy. We don’t play too many ODIs and we needed to give the next guy enough time. How Rohit has taken the decision to change captain is between him and the selection committee,” Agarkar said during a press conference.
India's most recent ODI task under Rohit's leadership was the Champions Trophy, which was won by the side earlier this year. Agarkar admitted that it was not an easy decision to replace a successful captain.
“Even if he had not won, it would have been a difficult decision. But sometimes you have to look forward — where you stand, the interest of the team, etc. Tough call,” he added.
So far, India has had separate captains in each format — Rohit being captain for ODIs, Gill for Tests, and Suryakumar Yadav for T20Is. With this recent change, Gill now captains the Test as well as the ODI team, and also plays the role of vice-captain in T20Is, becoming the obvious choice to become India's all-format captain in the near future.
The Australia series ahead would be Gill's first big ODI test as captain — a turning point in his emergence as India's next-generation captain.
India's ODI squad: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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