Shubman Gill’s first appearance as a full-time ODI captain offers an equally captivating story to the opening one-day match against Australia in Perth on Sunday, despite the poignant theme of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s comeback to the Indian team.
After competing in the Champions Trophy in March, Kohli and Rohit are returning to the national team, and during these seven months, Indian cricket’s dynamics have changed drastically.
In the interim, the cricketing ecosystem has adapted to withstand the extended absence of Rohit and Kohli, at least in two formats.
By any measure, Kohli and Rohit are among the best one-day batters of all time, and they have been putting in a lot of practice for this series.
Kohli was working out hard with a private trainer in London, his new base, while Rohit appeared to have lost a few pounds and toned his body.
The difficulty for these two titans, however, is to overcome the rust that has gathered since their final competitive appearance, the IPL. Perhaps their reunion and a series against Australia, a team that had a cathartic effect on them during their lengthy careers, were meant to be.
In that regard, the three-match ODI series can be viewed as a gauge of each player’s motivation and readiness to go farther in their careers as one-format cricketers.
However, Rohit must accept his new role as merely a veteran player, unlike Kohli.
After leading the team to ICC titles, Rohit’s previous T201 and ODI appearances ended in celebration. He was still captaining the squad in his final Test match in Melbourne.
These two mainstays have a good chance of surviving if Rohit can maintain his explosive shot-making and Kohli can deliver those exquisitely timed knocks.
As Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood attempt to silence the Ro-Ko duo once more, it will be exciting to see an old rivalry come to life.
The renowned cricketers will undoubtedly be aware that they no longer enjoy the luxury of time or the immunity of a leadership position because the current team management and selectors have no qualms about making some difficult decisions with the 2027 ODI World Cup in mind.
This was implied by Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of the selectors.
“Look they (Rohit and Kohli) are part of the squad at the moment for Australia. They are not on trial. Once they start playing, then you assess.
“But we have some ideas, and we’ll probably have a better idea of where the team is progressing,” said Agarkar during the ‘NDTV World Summit.
Gill is supposed to shape the future. However, he will never be free from the shadowy presence of Rohit and Kohli. During the away series against England, the 26-year-old has already demonstrated that he is capable of upholding Kohli’s batting legacy.
Gill will now need to live up to Rohit’s standards as white-ball format captain, which are aptly demonstrated by India’s 75% win rate under him—the greatest in the nation’s ODI history.
Gill’s evaluation will be based on Rohit’s limited-overs accomplishments whether he likes it or not, and the Mitchell Marsh-led Australia gives him a tough first stop even without top bowler Pat Cummins.
He will feel much more confident as a leader if he can ace this test, which will reflect in his rapidly improving batting.
The management is unlikely to alter the wildly effective starting duo of Gill and Rohit, with Yashasvi Jaiswal serving as a fallback.
Shreyas Lyer and KL Rahul, who will also serve as the wicketkeeper, will be the next in line after Kohli at number three.
Since Hardik Pandya is out due to injury, Nitish Kumar Reddy is expected to get his first ODI cap as an all-rounder. Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna will compete for the position of support seamer behind Mohammad Siraj and Arshdeep Singh.
Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel will be in charge of the spin division.
However, the Australians will be hoping that players like Matthew Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, and Marnus Labuschagne can provide Marsh and India’s eternal nemesis Travis Head with plenty of support.
Teams (from):
India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas lyer (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
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc
