While the return of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to the Indian ODI squad will be in focus, Shubman Gill's maiden outing as full-time ODI skipper provides an equally compelling narrative to the first one-day match against Australia here on Sunday.
Kohli and Rohit are coming back after playing the Champions Trophy in March, and the dynamics of Indian cricket has changed irrevocably in these seven months. The cricketing ecosystem has learned to survive the prolonged absence of Kohli and Rohit — at least in two formats — in this interim period.
They have been training hard for this series. Rohit seemed to have shed a few kilos and moulded himself into a chiselled figure, and Kohli was sweating it out in London, his new base, with a private trainer. But the challenge for these two giants is to shake off the accumulated rust after the IPL, their last competitive outing.
It might just be a blessing for them that their return coincided with a series against Australia, a team that had cathartic influence during the course of their long careers. In that context, the three-match ODI series can be considered as a barometer of their drive to excel further as one-format players.
It will be fascinating to watch an old rivalry coming to life again as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will try to keep the duo quiet once more. The celebrated cricketers will clearly be knowing that they no longer have the immunity of leadership role or luxury of time as the current selectors and team management have no deep remorse in taking some harsh calls with future in mind, particularly the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Now, Gill will have to match the standard set by Rohit as white-ball format skipper, justly reflected in India's 75 per cent win ratio under him, the highest in the country's ODI history. If he likes it or not, Gill will be judged against the achievements of Rohit in the limited-overs.
Bond with Rohit, Virat as strong as ever: Gill
India's new ODI captain Shubman Gill says his bond with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is as strong as ever despite contrary narratives floating on social media in recent weeks, insisting that he will not hesitate to approach the two stalwarts if he is in a fix during a match.
Standing on the banks of Swan river, quite an unusual setting for a pre-match media conference, Gill sought to dispel the doubts. "A narrative is run on the outside but nothing has changed in my relationship with Rohit. He is very helpful whenever I feel I need to ask him anything, may be input on nature of the track," he said.
Teams: India: Shubman Gill (c), 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.
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc.
Match starts at 9 am IST.
Also read: Virat, Rohit in scheme of things for World Cup: Gill
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