Less than 24 hours after picking up his first trophy as the Test skipper, Shubman Gill embarked for Perth with the first batch of India’s One-Day International side for an eight-match limited-overs side which will be watched with much interest.
India will challenge Australia in their backyard over three ODIs and five T20Is, in that order. The T20Is mark the first of 15 games for Suryakumar Yadav’s men before they set off to defend the World Cup, won last June in Bridgetown, so they hold huge meaning not so much from a results perspective as the unit continuing to tick over like a well-oiled machine.
Normally, given the lack of context in bilateral 50-over fixtures, the ODIs would have been viewed as little more than a cash cow for the broadcasters, but that isn’t the case this time around. If anything, the three ODIs will attract greater scrutiny than their shorter sibling, given the new dynamics in Indian cricket where the two immediate past captains will play for the first time under the boy-man who has been identified as the one to take the side into the future across all iterations.
Virat Kohli ceased to be India’s skipper more than three and a half years back, deposed as the 50-over leader between his resignations as the T20I and Test boss. Rohit Sharma, who had by then led both his franchise and his country to silverware, was the obvious choice to step into the Kohli shoes, and the Mumbaikar did a grand job in his short ride (three years) in charge.
Great run
Under him, India lost just one game in three successive ICC events; the one that got away (the 50-over final in November 2023) will hurt immensely, though stirring triumphs at the T20 World Cup (June 2024) and the Champions Trophy (March 2025) where India won all their 13 matches combined did come as a soothing balm of sorts.
There was little indication after Rohit held aloft the Champions Trophy in Dubai that a tectonic captaincy shift was imminent. The opener, who provided his side with blazing starts in almost all five games in the Emirates, was the Player of the Match in the final against New Zealand and followed it up with an excellent run for Mumbai Indians at IPL 2025. There were loud whispers that he would retire from Test cricket – which he did in May – after an ordinary season in which he topped 50 just once in eight matches and sat out the final Test against Australia in Sydney in January owing to poor form.
But having reiterated his desire to continue to play 50-over internationals, Rohit and millions of others who were taken in by his leadership style were convinced that at least for the immediate future, he would continue to helm the side.
Winds of change
The decision-makers, however, had other plans. While two years (the wait for the next 50-over World Cup) is a long preparatory period, they decided in their infinite wisdom that the passing of the ODI baton must happen here and now. Their thinking was perhaps influenced even more positively by Gill smashing 754 runs in his first series as Test captain, suggesting that the cares of captaincy didn’t adversely impact his batting. Ajit Agarkar’s selection panel, undoubtedly with inputs from head coach Gautam Gambhir, believed the period of transition needn’t be put off, hence the elevation of Gill as ODI captain too, with Shreyas Iyer as his deputy.
By bringing Gill back into the T20I fold after 13 months and naming him the vice-captain for the Asia Cup in the UAE in September, the deciding authorities have placed implicit faith in the 26-year-old batter. On the face of it, it would seem as if Gill has way too much on his plate. India have been playing non-stop since the start of the Asia Cup, and will continue to do so until the T20 World Cup at home and in Sri Lanka in February-March. As the new ODI captain, Gill can’t afford to sit out the 50-over skirmishes either. The T20s could be the stage that he can skip games once in a while, but because he hasn’t played for the country a lot in that version in the last 15 months and because of the imminence of the World Cup, any rest will be token and sporadic. Gill has to segue seamlessly from T20I opener to Test captain and No. 4 when the South Africa series begins in Kolkata on November 14, five days after the T20I series ends in Australia. This is all too much for one man, is the popular refrain, though that’s not something Agarkar and Gambhir are buying into.
While how Gill, with his new-found responsibilities, goes in Australia will occupy much mind space, the greater focus will be on Rohit and Kohli. How Rohit, used to calling the shots with his unique brand of tough love, slips back into being just one of the boys remains to be seen. He has had a little bit of practice in that regard in recent times; two seasons back, he was replaced as Mumbai Indians captain by Hardik Pandya even though he had led the franchise to five IPL crowns. Maybe that experience will stand him in good stead Down Under, where he has a wonderful ODI record.
The 50-over World Cup might be 24 months away but that hasn’t stopped speculations from abounding over whether Rohit and/or Kohli will be available for the flagship event. It’s debatable if either of the stalwarts, let alone those who will decide their fate, is looking that far ahead. Their immediate goal will be to prove that being an international in just a solitary version, and that too the 50-over one which doesn’t come as frequently as the other two, is no deterrent to consistent performances. Both are pedigreed batters who in their own contrasting ways have shored up the Indian batting for more than a decade. They are also proud warriors who must be stung by the recent developments – Rohit for being removed as captain, Kohli because of a huge dip in Test standards which certainly hastened his retirement – and therefore will be even more pumped up, if that is possible, to pull their weight in the team.
Speaking of weight, Rohit has shed quite a lot of that commodity since his last competitive fixture, towards the end of May in the IPL. Without the safety net of the captaincy, there is no guarantee that he will patrol solely the infield for the entire duration of a 50-over game. From time to time, he will have to do boundary-riding duties, and on the vast outfields in Australia, that will place unique demands. It’s not that Rohit hasn’t been asked to do that in the past, but he is 38 and hasn’t patrolled the outfield regularly for a while now. The very fact that he has put in the hard yards – like he did after the 2011 World Cup slight, those close to him insist – at this stage of his career is proof enough that he isn’t preparing to walk away from this all.
More than his fielding, though, it’s his batting that will be the cynosure. Having espoused an aggressive, unselfish, team-first style and having led by example with punchy stroke-play in both white-ball formats, Rohit disassociated himself from the tall edifices that were once his calling card. The high-risk approach was great for the side when it came off, which it often did; it allowed those coming in after him to take a little time to settle in. But it also meant the man with three ODI double-hundreds and a joint-highest five T20I tons would not be able to add to that tally willy-nilly.
What role will he be entrusted with by Gill and Gambhir? Will they be content to let him set the tone at the beginning of the innings, or will they expect him to be a little more conservative and bat for as deep into a 50-over innings as possible? If it is the former, Rohit will not have to make a massive mental shift but if it is the latter, then he has a job on his hands.
Like Rohit, Kohli too had a terrific Champions Trophy. He made an unbeaten, match-winning (what’s new, you say?) hundred against Pakistan and set up a tense semifinal chase against Australia with 84, his mastery of a run chase still undimmed and unparallelled. Kohli’s cricket has been driven by intensity and inner fire; he is at his most destructive and influential when he is lifted by the scent of battle. It’s impossible to envisage him going through the motions or playing at an intensity less than 100%, which is why he wasn’t a great fan of playing practice matches against modest oppositions on tour. For him, like Rohit but for different reasons and with different degrees, it’s the channelling of the inner, innate desire that holds the key.
Games of cricket, especially those of the 50-over breed, aren’t won or lost by one or two individuals alone. India possess a crack bunch which will encounter another behemoth in a battle that promises to excite, entertain and enthral. But such is the magnetic pull of Kohli and Rohit that even though Gill’s leadership style will grab some eyeballs, it is what this dynamic duo does with the bat that will keep millions glued to their television sets.
That’s not to say that Rohit and Kohli’s immediate future is directly linked to them making runs. One would like to believe that they have enough in the bank for three failures (assuming the worst) to usher them into the sunset, though stranger things have happened in the past and there have been several unexpected and unforeseen developments in Indian cricket in the last few weeks.
These three matches will, however, provide a window to what the immediate future – three ODIs each at home against South Africa and New Zealand – holds. As for the World Cup, what’s the rush, right? Twenty-four months is a lifetime, an eternity.
