The BCCI announced India’s white-ball squads for the Australia tour, naming Shubman Gill as ODI captain in place of Rohit Sharma. The move, aimed at grooming a young leader for the 2027 World Cup, has sparked debate among fans on social media.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) senior men’s team chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, announced India’s ODI and T20I squads for the white-ball tour of Australia on Saturday, October 4. Agarakar held a press conference in Ahmedabad to announce the white-ball squads for the ODI and T20I series against Australia, which will begin from October 19.
The squad was announced after Team India clinched an innings and 146-run victory over West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match Test series on Saturday, October 4. Ajit Agarkar was in Ahmedabad to chair the meeting with his selection committee to pick the squads for the white-ball tour of Australia. The new-look selection committee, with the inclusion of Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh, finalized a balanced squad for the ODIs and T20Is against Australia.
The selection committee picked a 15-member squad for the ODI series, while 16 players have been included in the T20I squad for the series against Australia.
Shubman Gill Takes Over the ODI Captaincy from Rohit Sharma
One of the biggest news from the squad announcement was Rohit Sharma being replaced by Shubman Gill as the ODI captain for the three-match series against Australia, an indication of a new leadership direction for India in the shorter format of the game. On the eve of squad selection, it was reported that the selectors would directly have conversations with Rohit on ODI captaincy.
Before the squad was announced, the selectors decided to promote Shubman Gill from ODI vice-captain to captain, replacing Rohit Sharma in a move aimed at building a young leadership core in the build-up to the ODI World Cup 2027, which will be co-hosted by Zimbabwe.
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Speaking about the change in ODI captaincy, Agarkar stated that it’s ‘practically’ impossible to have three captains for three different formats, and wanted to give time and opportunities to Shubman Gill to build the team in the build-up to the 2027 World Cup.
“It’s practically impossible to have three captains across formats. With the next World Cup in 2027, we felt it was the right time to have a new captain. There aren’t too many ODIs in the next couple of years, and the new captain needs time and opportunities to build his team,” the chief selector told the reporters in Ahmedabad.
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Shubman Gill is already Team India in Test cricket, with his first assignment being the England tour, which was successful as he team to a series draw while scoring over 750 runs. The 25-year-old is the vice-captain of India’s T20I team.
Did Selectors make the Right Call to replace Rohit with Gill as ODI Captain?
As soon as the squad was announced, the major point of discussion was whether replacing the experienced Rohit Sharma with the young Shubman Gill as ODI captain was the right move. The head of the selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, stated that he had spoken to Rohit Sharma about the ODI captaincy and apparent that the veteran Indian batter agreed to the selectors’ decision.
However, the decision to replace Rohit Sharma with Shubman Gill was not fully welcomed by the Indian cricket fans, as many feel that the Indian batting stalwart should have continued as an ODI captain till the World Cup, given his success as white-ball captain, while others slammed the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee for ‘disrespecting’ Rohit by removing him from ODI captaincy.
However, certain sections of fans agreed to the change in ODI captaincy, seeing it as a bold and necessary step to transition leadership to the next generation.
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Rohit Sharma has been quite a success as a captain in white-ball cricket, leading the Men in Blue to the T20 World Cup triumph last year, after which he retired from the format at the international level, and the Champions Trophy win this year. In the ODI format, Rohit led Team India to 42 wins in 56 matches and has a win percentage of 75.
Under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, Team India has lost only one match at ICC tournaments, winning 22 matches out of 23, with their only defeat coming in the 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia, highlighting an exceptional record and consistency as India’s white-ball leader on the global stage.