In May 2019, ahead of his departure to London for the ODI World Cup that summer, Rohit Sharma had opened up about his “ultimate dream” – lifting the ICC trophy.
“That’s the fairytale every youngster grows up dreaming about,” he had said in an interview with Cricbuzz. However, the India star endured two near-misses in the subsequent editions. Six years ago, despite a record-breaking batting show, India fell short in the semis. Four years later, on home soil, he led an unbeaten side to the final, only to suffer heartbreak with a loss to Australia in Ahmedabad.
In 2027, during the 50-over World Cup in South Africa, Rohit will no longer be India’s ODI captain, with the BCCI remaining non-committal on his potential selection for the tournament. But new one-day skipper Shubman Gill appears determined to fulfil Rohit’s “ultimate dream,” having been entrusted with the massive responsibility by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee.
On Saturday, as Agarkar revealed the squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series in Australia, starting October 19, he officially announced Gill as the ODI captain.
Speaking on BCCI.tv for the first time since the announcement, Gill said it is a huge honour to lead India in ODIs and that the ultimate goal is to be fully prepared to win the World Cup in South Africa.
He said: “It is the biggest honour to lead your country in one-day cricket, and to lead a side that has done well…it is immense pride for me, and I hope I will be able to do great. I think we have about 20 ODIs before we play the World Cup, and that is the ultimate goal. So everything that we play and all the players that we play, they will try to play their best, and hopefully we will be ready before we go to South Africa and win the World Cup.”
Rohit has been one of India’s most successful ODI captains, having led the team to 42 wins in 56 appearances, resulting in a winning percentage of 75. The run includes India’s Champions Trophy haul earlier this year in the UAE, which was also a second successive ICC trophy under his leadership, following the T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados in June 2024. However, Agarkar said that changing Rohit looking at larger picture was inevitable.
“Whether it is now or maybe six months later, those are the calls that I suppose we have put in place to make. Like I said, it is tough with one-day cricket at this point, because if you are going to make that call, you want to try and make it reasonably early and give the other guy enough chance to try and get that confidence of leading (in) another format, so that was the idea.”