Indian captain Shubman Gill is back with the ODI series against New Zealand and has once again praised his two former captains, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and hailed their dominance without a sense of comparison.
The ICC T20 World Cup is knocking at India’s doorstep, and Shubman Gill has been left out of the World Cup squad for the second consecutive time in 2024. Instead, Sanju Samson has once again made it to the T20 World Cup XI.
While Gill struggled with a freak injury in the South Africa series, he returned before the T20Is and played the series for India, not getting considerable success, while Samson managed a promising start in his very first game on return.
Indian captain Shubman Gill heaps praise on former captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
Ahead of the start of the ODI series against New Zealand, Indian legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been applauded again for their massive success in the limited-overs format, and this time, it’s Captain Gill.
Gill took over as India’s captain in 2025 ahead of the Australia tour. The captaincy passed on from Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup-winning skipper Rohit Sharma to the 25-year-old youngster, who became one of the youngest skippers of ODI history.
In praise of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill claimed that he is the greatest ever opening batsman in the game of cricket, while on the other hand, he claimed Virat Kohli to be the greatest ever ODI batsman for Gill.
Rohit Sharma is one of the greatest openers in ODIs and Virat Kohli is one of the greatest-ever ODI batsmen: Gill
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) January 10, 2026
Shubman Gill attacks Sanjay Manjrekar from the latest press conference
Virat Kohli has retired from the two other formats of the game and continues to play the ODI format with a firm vision to star in the ICC T20 World Cup. He has been in some stunning form in the format and was India’s highest-scoring batter in 2025.
From the latest Instagram video of Sanjay Manjrekar, he was heard shaming Kohli for having let go of the Test format, undoubtedly the most challenging format in the game. Manjrekar had then remarked that the ODIs are one of the easiest formats for a top-order batter.
Several cricket players did not find these words to be innocent, while Shubman Gill simply said that the format is not at all easy and requires great resilience.
Shubman Gill to captain India for the ODIs against New Zealand
Shubman Gill’s one-day captaincy stint started with the Australia tour, where they faced a crushing 2-1 defeat. He did not score many runs off his bat, while Rohit, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer did the majority of the scoring.
He will be back to lead India in the ODI series against New Zealand, after KL Rahul led them the last time against South Africa at home. Gill also needs some runs under his belt to continue as a top-priority batter in the side; otherwise, his captaincy would be cited as a burden that dipped his form, much like Suryakumar Yadav.
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