Former Australia captain Aaron Finch backed the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to appoint India's ODI captain ahead of the upcoming Australia tour. Gill, who was recently appointed as India's Test captain, has been rewarded with the ODI captaincy for the side featuring the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Finch backs BCCI decision for Shubman Gill captaincy
BCCI's decision to promote Gill as India's ODI captain shocked fans, but Finch, who was a part of Australia's World Cup-winning squad, believes it's a logical step. Finch reckons that Rohit and Virat's experience will serve him well as he takes the reins in the 50-over format.
Speaking to the ICC, Finch highlighted the advantage Gill will have by having Rohit and Kohli around the field. “Shubman has already shown what a good leader he is in T20 cricket and Test cricket, so I’m sure this will be no different,” Finch said. “He’s a brilliant player, particularly in the white-ball formats, and the way that he captained against England in the Test series is just a huge tick in his box to take the next step and take over the Indian leadership across all three formats.”
Finch compared Gill's situation with himself leading Australia. “When you look back at that England Test series, he didn’t have many other options to turn to for advice when he was on the ground, but he did a wonderful job himself,” Finch said. “In his case, just having guys like Rohit and Kohli there will provide a real calmness. It allows him to bounce ideas off them, both on and off the field, about how he wants the team to function going forward, because they’ve been such a huge part of the team for a long period of time.”
India vs Australia ODI schedule
Gill's first assignment as ODI captain will be the upcoming three-match ODI series against Australia, which is scheduled to start from October 19.
| Match | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 1st ODI | October 19 | Perth Stadium |
| 2nd ODI | October 23 | Adelaide Oval |
| 3rd ODI | October 25 | Sydney Cricket Ground |
India's ODI squad against Australia
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.