Shubman Gill ‘ready to take over’ ODI captaincy after England tour show: How long will Rohit Sharma continue?
India may have ended the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in a 2-2 draw — extending their 15-year wait for a Test series win in England — but the contest offered more positives and promise than many expected. Chief among them was Shubman Gill’s captaincy. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill during the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year(PTI)Gill’s appointment as Test captain ahead of more experienced names for a high-stakes England tour raised eyebrows. Neither head coach Gautam Gambhir nor chief selector Ajit Agarkar’s backing could immediately quell the doubts. But all questions were put to rest after the Oval thriller, where India pulled off a dramatic six-run heist to level the series.Gill was named Player of the Series for leading India's batting charge, scoring 754 runs in 10 innings — the most ever by an Indian captain in a Test series and second only to Don Bradman’s 810 runs in the 1936–37 Ashes.Following his heroics, former cricketer Mohammad Kaif backed Gill to take over India’s ODI captaincy as well, even as questions grow around Rohit Sharma’s international future.“He will get the ODI captaincy as well because we don’t know how long Rohit Sharma will continue as captain. Gill is ready to take over. He scores in white-ball. He has performed well as captain here in Tests and led from the front. When you go with a young team, you have to do both things – score with the bat and do well as captain. A brilliant tour for him overall,” he said on his YouTube channel.“Shubman Gill, as captain, created opportunities with both hands in this series. When he became captain, there were many questions as to why he was made captain, looking at his Test record. A young captain reached England under a lot of pressure with a young team. He answered with his bat and it came to a point where he was compared to breaking Sir Don Bradman’s record. Such a strong comeback with the bat,” Kaif said.The ODIs remain the only format in which Rohit remains active. He retired from the T20Is in June 2024 after leading India to the T20 World Cup win in Barbados and then announced his shock exit from Test cricket in May earlier this year, just weeks before the announcement of the India squad for the tour of England.Although the chatter around the future of Rohit in ODI cricket is slowly gathering pace, BCCI had confirmed upon his Test retirement that the 37-year-old will remain the skipper in the 50-over format.Earlier in May, Rohit's childhood coach Dinesh Lad said that the India great would like to bow out from international cricket by winning the ODI World Cup, which has eluded India since 2011 when the team led by MS Dhoni lifted the trophy."His [Rohit's] aim is to win the 2027 ODI World Cup and then retire," Lad told PTI. "His target was the World Test Championship, but unfortunately we didn't qualify. Now, it's the 2027 World Cup... I also want him to win the 2027 World Cup and then retire."The 2027 Cricket World Cup is scheduled to be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in October and November.Rohit will next appear in the three-match ODI series in Australia, which will begin on October 19 in Perth.
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