Waves of transition that have been hitting Indian cricket for a while now crashed against One-Day Internationals on Saturday (October 4, 2025) as Shubman Gill was named India’s captain in place of Rohit Sharma, ahead of the three-match series in Australia beginning in Perth on October 19.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar, in a press briefing in Ahmedabad, confirmed that the call to show faith in the Test leader was made with the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in mind and also because “it’s practically impossible to have three different captains for three formats”.
Gill’s deputy will be Shreyas Iyer as India is scheduled to play six more ODIs against the visiting South African and New Zealand sides in the next three months.
Rohit, 38, was India’s Champions Trophy-winning skipper from March, and has been retained as a player in the 50-over squad alongside Virat Kohli, who will soon be 37. “That’s the format they are playing at the moment and we have picked them,” said Agarkar. “As far as the 2027 World Cup is concerned, I don’t think we need to talk about it today.”
Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli has been named in the squad for the tour of Australia.
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AP
Ravindra Jadeja has missed out though, with Axar Patel being considered the first-choice left-arm tweaker.
“Taking two left-arm spinners to Australia is not possible,” Agarkar explained. “He [Jadeja] is clearly in the scheme of things but there will be some competition for places. Of course, he was there in the Champions Trophy, but we took those extra spinners because of the conditions there.”
“With Washi [Washington Sundar] and Kuldeep [Yadav] there as well, I don’t think we are going to need more than that in Australia,” the former India speedster added.
Also excluded from the successful Champions Trophy roster are Varun Chakaravarthy and pacer Mohammed Shami. Hardik Pandya, who suffered a quadriceps injury ahead of the recent Asia Cup final, has been replaced by fellow fast-bowling all-rounder Nitish Reddy while Dhruv Jurel has been included as the second wicket-keeper behind K.L. Rahul.
The Suryakumar Yadav-led squad for the five-match T20I in Australia, however, bears a settled look, with the only notable change from the bunch that won the Asia Cup being Nitish’s inclusion in place of Pandya.
The T20 World Cup will be held in February-March 2026 at home and in Sri Lanka, and India, after the upcoming series Down Under, will be playing five T20Is against South Africa and five versus New Zealand in the lead up.
Squad
Indian ODI squad for Australia tour: Shubman Gill (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (vice-capt.), Axar Patel, K.L Rahul (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
India’s T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Capt.), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (vice-capt.), 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.
Published – October 04, 2025 03:08 pm IST
