Follow UsRohit Sharma, despite winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 as India captain, could not retain the captaincy in the ODIs for the next series, scheduled for Down Under in October 2025.
Chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, revealed in his press conference that a combination of factors -- age, preparation time and having multiple captains across formats -- led to Shubman Gill replacing him as ODI captain.
“Obviously, at some stage, you’ve got to start looking at where the next World Cup is. It’s also a format that is played the least now,” Agarkar was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
“You don’t get that many games to actually give the next guy, or if there is going to be another guy, that much time to prepare himself or plan. And we’re two years away still. It might look like a long time, but we don’t quite know how many one-day games we might play,” he added.
The former India pacer further suggested that the frequency of ODIs is so low that it becomes impossible to keep another captain in loop, apart from the ones in Tests and T20Is, formats which are regular.
“It is very difficult to have three different captains for three formats. In terms of not just selectors, but more importantly, even for the coach, to plan with three different people are never easy,” said the 47-year-old.
Speaking about the choice of Gill as captain, Agarkar remarked, “He’s still quite young. We saw what he did in England under immense pressure. You’ve seen his record in one-day cricket as a batter. We hope there’s no burnout.”
Both Rohit and Virat Kohli have been named in the ODI side, meaning that the team has not done away with them, and we might see them play the much desired 2027 ODI World Cup.