Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh was left 'shocked' seeing Rohit Sharma get replaced by Shubman Gill as the side's ODI captain for the three-match series against Australia that is set to commence from October 19. Rohit, who captained the Men in Blue for a total of 56 matches in the one-day format, will be playing under the leadership of Gill in the upcoming Australia assignment.
Harbhajan wasn't expecting Rohit to lose captaincy
Harbhajan was certainly taken aback with Rohit losing his ODI captaincy ahead of the important series and expressed his shock over the matter. He even went on to say that Rohit should have travelled to Australia as the skipper.
"First of all, congratulations to Shubman Gill. Obviously, he has been leading the team well in Test cricket, and now he’s been given another opportunity in ODIs as well. It's going to be a new challenge for him. Rohit has been replaced, but he will always be someone who holds a very good record in white-ball cricket. To be honest, this news is a little bit shocking to me. If at all, he was going to Australia, he should have been the captain. He won the Champions Trophy, and other tournaments too (T20 World Cup)," Harbhajan said after India's squad was announced.
Harbhajan labelled Rohit as one of the 'pillars' of Indian cricket added that he deserved to get atleast one more captaincy run in Australia. The former spinner also feels that the BCCI could have waited for 6-8 months more before handing Gill with the leadership duties.
"He's been one of the pillars of Indian cricket, so he should have been given one last captaincy run in Australia. I know the 2027 World Cup is still very far away. Gill could have waited a little and taken over in another 6-8 months. So yeah, I’m happy for Shubman but disappointed for Rohit to be removed," Harbhajan added.
Rohit and Virat set for international return
Both Rohit and Virat Kohli have been selected in India's squad for the Australia ODIs. The duo will be donning the Indian jersey for the first time since the Champions Trophy final earlier this year in March. The fans will be thoroughly excited to see the duo make their much-awaited return to international cricket.
India's squad for Australia ODIs: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.