Former middle-order hitter Mohammad Kaif has stated that current India ODI and Test captain Shubman Gill will have mixed feelings about succeeding Rohit Sharma as the team’s skipper. Kaif stated that Rohit, after leading the team to the 2025 Champions Trophy in his penultimate 50-over assignment, was ousted from captaincy, with Gill taking over as his successor.
According to Kaif, this change will strain Gill’s mentality by requiring him to lead someone like Rohit, a senior and his opening partner. The teenager may even feel bad about taking over leadership from someone who is India’s second most successful One-Day International captain.
“It takes time for any new captain, now, for Gill, he has Rohit Sharma, a proven leader, playing under him. Gill also knows that Rohit Sharma has not done anything wrong as a captain. He was removed from captaincy. When Gill goes to sleep in his hotel room, he must be thinking that Rohit bhai has not done anything wrong. He must be feeling the guilt inside, ‘that people are backing me, but think about Rohit bhai, he did so well and won trophies, but even after that, he was removed, and I was named captain’,” said Kaif in a video on his YouTube channel.
“So, considering everything — fatigue, travel, playing so many matches on the trot, and having the task of captaining Rohit and Kohli, it will take time. This is a transition phase for Gill as ODI captain. Whenever he leads Rohit and Kohli, he will feel nervous. So this is a time where the runs are not coming from the bat, and we lost a bilateral ODI series, I don’t even remember when we lost a bilateral series. So, all of this has happened under his captaincy, and this had to happen.”
Mohammad Kaif
In his first ODI as captain, Gill has struggled as a hitter as well as a captain. He scored only 10 runs in the Perth ODI, followed by a nine-run performance in Adelaide, as the Men in Blue lost both matches to Mitchell Marsh’s team. Gill now has the unfortunate distinction of losing his first-ever ODI, Test, and T20I match as captain.
