Twitter slams BCCI for suddenly giving Gill ODI captaincy without clarification on Rohit's stance

Yesterday at 3:42 PM

A famous saying in Australia heralds their cricket captain as the second most important man after the Prime Minister, and the same could be claimed for India if not more. Unsurprisingly thus, there was a huge furor on Saturday when Shubman Gill took over from Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain.

Shubman Gill has now replaced Rohit Sharma as India captain in both Test and ODI cricket

India announced 15 and 16-man squads for three ODIs and five T20Is in Australia respectively, slated to begin with the 50-over games on October 19 while the last T20 is scheduled for November 9. Apart from a string of expected changes, forced and voluntary, the biggest takeaway was Shubman Gill taking over from Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain after a four-year stint for the latter at the helm. Gill had also taken over from the veteran as Test captain a couple months ago after Rohit announced his retirement from the format, and was named T20I vice-captain in the recently concluded Asia Cup. Rohit led India in 56 ODIs, winning 44 of them which included a run to the World Cup final at home in 2023 and glory in the Champions Trophy earlier this year in the UAE, which was incidentally India's last outing in the format.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar stated the change was mind keeping in mind the 2027 World Cup in Africa, with the early change allowed to give Gill enough time to settle in albeit he restrained from talking in detail about the future. Agarkar also stated that having different captains across formats was difficult to juggle for the selectors as well as the coaches, given head coach Gautam Gambhir had to communicate with three different personalities. When asked whether Rohit had been informed ahead of the announcement, Agarkar affirmed the necessary procedures had been followed albeit he refused to divulge the details of their converstaion, stating it was a private matter.

Additionally, Shreyas Iyer was elevated to ODI vice-captaincy in the absence of senior figures Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah, with Virat Kohli still a part of the squad. Twitterati had mixed reactions to the leadership change.

Big changes!

Shubman Gill, India's new ODI Captain

Shreyas Iyer Vice Captain

Virat and Rohit are back, KL and Jurel as WK

Yashaswi Jaiswal also gets called up.

Harshit Rana will remain there no matter what.
— Abhijeet ♞ (@TheYorkerBall)

Excpeted as Captain?

🚨 SHREYAS IYER - THE VICE CAPTAIN OF INDIAN ODI TEAM

Deserve as a CAPTAIN but......
— Suraj Singh (@SurajSingh81994)

Sounds good!

Shubman Gill - new ODIs captain.

Shreyas Iyer - new Vice Captain

This is going to be tough for Rohit Sharma to play as a pure batter,with this age he is going to have 1 and 2 bad series and he will be thrown out of the team, now he doesn't have the luxury to play as a captain
— Sujeet Suman (@sujeetsuman1991)

No idea!

Why not Shreyas Iyer even after that CT performance and recent captaincy records in Ipl ??
— _Jishan10_ (@_jishan10_)

Yeah!

🚨 SHREYAS IYER HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS INDIA’S ODI VICE CAPTAIN. 🚨
— CRICKET (@v_k_fan18)

Why?

Shubman Gill is not a good captain..... !!!
— Noor Ali Afridi (@nooralireal)

Good luck!

All the best Shubman gill
— Prasant Kumar Nayak (@klassic_prasant)

Let's hope it goes well!

Shubman Gill era begins. 🇮🇳
— DIVYANSH CHAUHAN (@Imchauhan28)

Yupe!

Change is inevitable

But Let's Take a Moment & Appreciate the culture Rohit Sharma bought in this team. The temperament, Role Clarity. Lost Only Single Match in Last 2 ODI ICC Trophy

Good that Shubman Gill will have him in the early days of captaincy as he was one of the best
— Shlok Marathe (@PitchPerfect021)

Good to see!