The ODI leadership baton has been passed over to Shubman Gill.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee took a tough call of removing Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI captain last week.
Despite leading India to the Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year, the 38-year-old was not considered for the leadership role when the selectors sit together to pick the ODI squad for the upcoming Australia tour.
With the ODI World Cup scheduled in two years’ time, the baton was passed over to Shubman Gill, who was also named the Test skipper following Rohit's retirement in May 2025.
While Rohit Sharma continues to feature in the 15-member squad as a specialist batter, it’s unclear whether he is in the scheme of things for the quadrennial event in South Africa.
Amid the latest development, former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa has claimed that Rohit’s exit as ODI captain may have a negative impact on his aggressive style of batting at the top of the order.
"Rohit Sharma is someone who has upped the ante even in one-day cricket. Over the last three or four years, he has played at a much quicker clip, and I think that's been a transformation of sorts for him," Uthappa said while speaking on The KimAppa Show.
"The shift in the way he (Rohit) approaches one-day cricket has changed. I think he has probably found a sweet spot with that. There are times I feel he doesn't need to be so aggressive. I think he was leading from the front and he wanted to do that.
"Now, he would probably be a little more circumspect because it would have been much more difficult to drop a captain versus now as a player. They (the selectors) have also said both these players will be picked on merit. So, I think they (Rohit and Virat Kohli) will be a little more cautious before being uber-aggressive," Uthappa explained.
Shreyas Iyer has been named Gill’s deputy for the Australia series, scheduled between October 19 and 25 in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney.
India's ODI squad for Australia tour: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (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.