The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee took a significant call, once again signaling a clear shift in direction in Indian cricket. On Saturday, at a presser for the upcoming white-ball tour of Australia, the chief selector confirmed Shubman Gill as the new ODI captain, ending Rohit Sharma‘s three-year tenure in the role. But the BCCI has one final plan in place for the 25-year-old, which is reportedly set to be confirmed next March.

Explaining his decision to move on from Rohit, despite his achievement as a leader in white-ball cricket, which includes back-to-back ICC trophies – the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy, Agarkar said that the results had no effect on the committee’s decision and it was rather a forward-looking call. He further explained that the selectors were all on the same page about the need to give Rohit’s successor enough time to prove his worth, given that India will only play a handful of ODI games in the lead-up to the tournament.

“Even if he had not won the Champions Cup, it would have been a difficult decision. Because of how good he has been for India. But you have got to sometimes look at what’s coming forward, where you stand as a team and eventually look at what’s in the best interest of the team. Whether it’s now or maybe six months later. Those are the calls that I suppose we have to put in place to make. Like I said, it’s tough with one-day cricket at this point. Because if you are going to make that call, you want to try and make it reasonably early and give the other guy enough chance to try and get that confidence of leading another format. So, that was the idea. But it’s always tough. Someone who has been very successful, you have to make that decision,” he said.

According to a report in the PTI, it is not just Agarkar and his fellow selectors, but head coach Gautam Gambhir also agrees with the decision. “A young all-format captain also gives the Indian cricket board a chance to create a solid role model going into the next decade,” read the report.

Hence, the report added that Gill is expected to take over the reins of the T20I team from Suryakumar Yadav after the World Cup in India next February. It said: “Result of the tournament will be immaterial as is the case with Rohit’s triumph as Champions Trophy skipper.”

Gill was earlier named as the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team for the Asia Cup in August. While he was handed the role previously in July last year, following the introduction of Gambhir as the head coach of the team, the prioritisation of the Champions Trophy and the World Test Championship (WTC) campaigns saw him miss out on subsequent T20I series, until he returned to the side for the continental tournament. The elevation clearly indicated India’s future plans.

Gill was earlier named as the Test captain in May this year after the sudden retirement of Rohit from the format. In his maiden assignment, he not only put on a record-breaking batting show, but also led India to a stunning 2-2 draw.

Agarkar, speaking in the press conference, explained that the decision to promote Gill was always part of the plan, as he was named ODI vice-captain for the Champions Trophy tournament earlier this year. However, the bigger reason was to move away from split captaincy.

“It is very difficult to have three different captains for three formats, in terms of not just selectors but more importantly even for the coach, to plan with three different people is never easy,” Agarkar said.

He also emphasised the need to prepare for the future. “Obviously, at some stage, you have to start looking at where the next World Cup will be. It’s also a format that is played the least now. So you don’t get that many games to actually give the next guy, or if there is going to be another guy, that much time to prepare himself or plan.

“We are two years away still, might look like a long time, but we don’t quite know how many one-day games we might play. Closer to the World Cup we might end up playing a little bit more than what we have, but the last one-day game we played was what, 8th or 9th March in the Champions Trophy, and the next one we play is in October 19th, so it is a bit of a challenge with one-day cricket at the moment “