• Source:JND
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Shubman Gill has been named as India's new ODI captain and will be leading the team in the three-match away series against Australia, which starts on October 19.

Gill, who is also India's Test captain, will have the experience of former skipper Rohit Sharma in the ODI side, at least for the Australia tour. Alongside Rohit, veteran batter Virat Kohli was also named in the 15-member side.

Over the last few months, there were speculations about whether the national selection committee would continue with Rohit as the captain in ODIs, especially after he decided to move on from Tests. On Saturday, the chairman of the BCCI selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, justified the decision to move on from the veteran captain, saying that "it’s impossible to have three different captains in three formats."

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Notably, Gill took over the Test leadership from Rohit in May, and he went on to lead the team in the five-Test series against England, where the team earned a 2-2 draw.

Agarkar clarified that Gill was given the ODI captaincy to streamline things. "Obviously, at some stage, you have to start looking at where the next World Cup is. 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 a plan," Agarkar said.

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"The World Cup is still two years away, that 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 ODI we played was in March during the Champions Trophy, and the next one we play is on October 19. So, it is a bit of a challenge with One-day cricket at the moment," he said, adding that even though the T20 World Cup is next year, planning for the ODI World Cup would also start slowly.

"That’s the plan. It gives the next guy enough time to plan with whatever games that we have," Agarkar said, reiterating that it would be difficult for selectors and coaches as well to plan with three different captains.

Turning down the possibility of Gill playing all three formats becoming a concern in the future, Agarkar said: "He is still quite young. We saw what he did in England under immense pressure. So, there were really positive signs there. You have seen his record in ODI cricket as a batter, and we hope there’s no burnout," he said.

"It is true there’s a lot of cricket coming thick and fast over the next few months in particular, but as the team management, we try and manage it as best as we can. But you would also like to give the guy enough time to try and prepare going into that World Cup, which is 24 months away."

Gill has represented India in 55 ODI matches so far and has scored 2775 runs, with eight centuries. While the right-handed batter has already had the exposure of playing in some of the big tournaments, including the ICC Champions Trophy, which India won earlier this year, the selectors, as well as the team management, would hope that he continues to shine bright across formats.