Ajit Agarkar says replacing Rohit Sharma with Shubman Gill was ‘difficult’; insists focus on 2027 ODI World Cup

Indian selectors have chosen to back young blood over experience as they announced Shubman Gill will be replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain of India in One Day Internationals.

The decision was revealed during the squad announcement for India's upcoming white-ball tour of Australia. It was clearly made keeping in mind the 2027 ODI World Cup, for which the selectors needed to zero down on a captain who is most likely to make it to the squad. With Sharma currently 38, he might not continue in the team till October-November 2027, when the ODI World Cup will be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

It is also unclear whether Test vice captain Ravindra Jadeja will make it to the WC squad, owing to his exclusion from the upcoming Australia tour.

“Obviously at some stage you got to start looking at where the next World Cup is,” said selectors' committee chairman Ajit Agarkar while addressing the captaincy question.

Further saying that it would be 'practically impossible' to have a different captain for each format of the game, Agarkar, as per TOI, said that he had informed Rohit of the decision before making it public. He said, Even if he did not win the Champions Trophy as captain, it would have been a difficult decision because of how good he’s been for India. But you’ve got to sometimes look at what’s coming forward, where you stand as a team, and eventually look at what’s in the best interest of the team, whether it’s now or maybe six months later. Those are the calls that I suppose we are put in place to make here."

Agarkar also said that since ODI matches are played the least, while choosing a new captain for said format, We have to try and give the other guy enough chance to get that confidence of leading another format.”

He made it clear that the team that was announced was for the Australia tour alone, and anyone's inclusion in this team does not guarantee them a spot in the World Cup squad.

India squad for Australia tour (ODI): Shubman Gill (c), 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.

India squad for Australia tour (T20I): Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (vc), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.