CHENNAI: When Shubman Gill walks out for the toss at The Perth Stadium on Sunday, it will only be the second time the newly-appointed Indian captain plays an ODI Down Under. The only other time Gill took the field in an ODI in Australia was during the third match in 2020. Back then, Gill was yet to make his Test debut and was only two ODIs old.
Cut to now, the 26-year-old has been handed the keys to the kingdom. He was named the ODI vice-captain in February, Test captain in May and T20I vice-captain in August. But questions lingered about ODIs. Rohit Sharma was still the captain. He was the player of the final and captain in the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year and had made it clear that he was not going anywhere involuntarily till the 2027 ODI World Cup — the one white-ball ICC trophy missing in his trophy cabinet.
However, it was always going to be a matter of time. The fact that Gill took the Test captaincy like fish to water and made a statement with the bat in England where India drew the series 2-2 meant the selectors decided it was time. Much like how Virat Kohli was removed from his ODI captaincy and Rohit took over -- via a press release -- the baton was passed on to Gill with chief selector Ajit Agarkar announcing that it was time to move forward.
When Rohit took over from Virat, he was already a senior player and an established all-format star. Gill, meanwhile, is the anointed one. Not long before he was made Test captain, Gill was dropped for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. He is not India's best T20I batter; not by a long shot. In ODIs, however, Gill is as close to the real thing in the post Rohit-Kohil era. To say that he feels at home in this format would be an understatement. It is the format he feasts on. Since the last time India visited Australia for a white-ball tour in 2020, no one has scored more ODI runs for India than Gill. He has the joint-most centuries (8) with Kohli, highest average (61.31) for any Indian with more than 200 runs. And his 2759 runs — 445 more than Kohli — since November 2020 has come a strike rate of 100.14. Only Rohit (2053 runs) has scored more than 1000 runs in this phase at a higher strike rate (115.07).
Considering all this, it is the one format where Gill should feel the most comfortable leading India. However, it will not be easy. In Tests or T20Is, Gill did not have to manage Kohli or Rohit as captain as they retired before he was handed a leadership role. That is not the case here. And it gets tricky when the selectors have made it clear that the two senior players — who were arguably the best ODI batters of their generation — will be monitored based on their performance and that there is no guarantee at the moment that they will feature in the 2027 ODI World Cup. Even the build-up to the tour has also been about the murmurs about their place and the underlying tension about the transition. "Look, they (Rohit and Kohli) are part of the squad at the moment for Australia," Agarkar said during NDTV World Summit 2025 on Friday. "In two years' time, we don't know what the situation is going to be. So why just them two? It could be some other younger players (who might miss out on the tournament)."
However, Axar Patel feels having the two players allows Gill to grow as a captain in the format. "For Gill, it's perfect, Rohit Bhai and Virat Bhai are there, and along with that, they have been captains, so they can give their input also, so it is very good growth of Gill's captaincy. What has been good about Gill's captaincy thus far is that he has not been pressurised," Patel said during a joint-media interaction alongside Australia's Travis Head. The best way to do so would be to replicate what what Gill did in England — let the bat do the talking while all the attention remains on Rohit and Kohli.
Irrespective of what happens, Sunday marks a new beginning. For Gill, and for Indian cricket.
