Indian captain Shubman Gill is back with the ODI series against New Zealand and he has once again praised his two former captains, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and lauded their dominance without any sense of comparison.
The ICC T20 World Cup is knocking at India’s door, and Shubman Gill has been left out of the World Cup squad for the second consecutive time in 2024. In his place, Sanju Samson has once again made it to the T20 World Cup XI.
While Gill struggled with a serious injury in the South Africa series, he made a comeback ahead of the T20Is and played the series for India but did not enjoy much success, while Samson made a stellar debut in his very first game on his return.
Indian captain Shubman Gill praised former captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Ahead of the start of the ODI series against New Zealand, Indian legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have once again been praised for their huge success in the limited overs format, and this time, it is captain Gill.
Gill took over as India captain ahead of the Australia tour in 2025. The 25-year-old took over the captaincy from Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup-winning captain Rohit Sharma, becoming one of the youngest captains in ODI history.
In praise of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill claimed that he is the greatest opening batsman ever to play the game of cricket while on the other hand, he claimed Virat Kohli to be the greatest ODI batsman for Gill.
Rohit Sharma is one of the greatest ODI openers and Virat Kohli is one of the greatest ODI batsmen ever: Gill
– RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) 10 January 2026
Shubman Gill attacked Sanjay Manjrekar in the latest press conference.
Virat Kohli has retired from two other formats of the game and continues to play in the ODI format with a firm aim of starring in the ICC T20 World Cup. He has been in great form in this format and was India’s highest run-scorer in 2025.
In Sanjay Manjrekar’s latest Instagram video, he was heard shaming Kohli for skipping the Test format, which is undoubtedly the most challenging format of the game. Manjrekar had then commented that ODI is one of the easiest formats for a top-order batsman.
These words did not seem innocent to many cricket players, whereas Shubman Gill simply said that this format is not at all easy and it requires a lot of flexibility.
Shubman Gill will captain India for the ODI series against New Zealand.
Shubman Gill’s ODI captaincy started with the Australia tour, where he suffered a crushing 2-1 defeat. Not many runs came from his bat, while Rohit, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer scored most of the runs.
He will return to lead India in the ODI series against New Zealand, after KL Rahul last led them against South Africa on home soil. Gill also needs some runs to remain as the top priority batsman in the team; Otherwise, his captaincy will be cited as a burden that spoiled his form, much like Suryakumar Yadav.
Also read: BCCI worried about India’s defeat in red ball, held a high level meeting to save Test cricket.