The senior national selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar has been decisively rational, ruthless even, and taken some big calls to drag Indian cricket forward. The latest step is the anointment of Test skipper Shubman Gill, 26, as ODI captain, overlooking Rohit Sharma in the process.
It’s a call that had to be taken, considering the next ODI World Cup is in 2027 and the time gap is too huge for anyone to back Rohit, who is 38, considering he doesn’t play Tests or T20Is anymore.
The message is clear to both Rohit and Virat Kohli, who will be 37 next month, that the door isn’t entirely shut on individual careers, but the reins to run and steer Indian cricket has been snapped.
It also remains to be seen if the two carry on after the Australian series; do they have enough desire and will to keep sweating as players with minimal international cricket practice and have that motivation to play the next World Cup. That time will tell, but it’s clear that to do that, they will have to keep performing as players. Stripping Rohit of captaincy is a clear message in that regard.
Rohit the captain had a great run, and can be proud of the fact that he came within a game on that muggy November night in Ahmedabad in 2023 to winning the premier event of all the three big formats. But that’s how life rolls sometimes
Not that it’s entirely shocking or alien, though the fanbases in these social media days do make it sound that way. We saw the understandable virtual tears when Kohli and Rohit’s Test careers came to an end. But the big players of the earlier generation too didn’t exactly have grand farewells. Sachin Tendulkar did, but even he, as this newspaper had reported then, was spoken to by the selectors and the board, and slowly nudged towards announcing that the West Indies series in 2013 would be his last. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman quit after a bad series in Australia, Sourav Ganguly was nudged out, and Virender Sehwag still sighs to this day that he never got a farewell.
The run of time doesn’t wait for anyone. And now it’s up to the two stars of this generation to see how they want to keep running with one caveat. Agarkar’s panel has ensured that it won’t be left just to their whims, but performance will be the key to decide the opening of the exit door. It’s tough on the two stars and their fanbases, but it’s the right way to go for Indian cricket.