Former India head coach Anil Kumble reckoned that ace speedster Jasprit Bumrah is a better fit to lead the Men in Blue in ODIs than Shubman Gill for the time being, considering his experience and importance for the team. Team India will have to be prepared for a transition including ODI format which will need a new captain after Rohit Sharma's departure.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have appointed Shubman Gill as India's vice-captain for the Champions Trophy 2025. However, Jasprit Bumrah is missing the tournament because of an injury he got during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia.
Both captaincy candidates led India in past in different formats. Gill was named captain in 2024 for the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe and Bumrah-led India in three Tests including two Tests of the last edition of Border-Gavaskar Trophy and also in a biletral series against Ireland in 2023.
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"Shubman is already in the leadership group, and eventually he will get to that captaincy. Now whether it will be immediately after Rohit leaves one-day cricket, or else Bumrah will come in, which is the automatic choice both for Test match cricket and the ODI format, because you hardly play ODIs now," Kumble said on ESPN Cricinfo.
Kumble further explained that the next ODI World Cup will be in 2027 and now teams hardly play one-day cricket. Suryakumar Yadav is already leading the team in T20Is.
"If you look at white-ball cricket, although the next World Cup is 2027, in between 2023 and now, we have hardly played one-day cricket. It's mostly been T20 format, where Suryakumar Yadav is already the captain. So, when you look at ODI format, to sort of look at Bumrah, and preserve him because he is very valuable, and try to utilize him for important tournaments. So, I think Bumrah will become the natural choice, but Shubman won't be far behind," he added.
Gill recently featured for India in Champions Trophy clash against Bangladesh and now the young batter is preparing for the Pakistan clash which will take place on Februrary 23 in Dubai.