India vs New Zealand ODIs: Shubman Gill is all set to make his return after an injury break as he will be in action in the three-match ODI series between India and New Zealand, starting on January 11. Ahead of the series opener in Vadodara, Gill has responded to Sanjay Manjrekar’s claim that Virat Kohli opted to play the easiest format for the final part of his career by retiring from Tests and T20Is.

Gill talked about the importance of the ODI cricket, saying that the format ‘resilience, persistence and determination’, saying if it were easy, India would have won more World Cups since 2011. Notably, Gill will be captaining India's ODI team for the first time in a match at home, having replaced Rohit Sharma as the team's new skipper. Gill's comment came a day after Manjrekar posted a video on social media explaining his comments, where he said that batting in ODIs was much easier than in Tests because of the lack of help for bowlers and conservative field placements.

"The Indian cricket team hasn’t won a World Cup since 2011, so if it was that (easy), we would be winning (the) World Cup every second year (edition)," Gill said. "It’s easy to say that, but I don’t think any format is easy. It requires a lot of resilience, a lot of persistence, and a lot of determination to be able to win big ICC tournaments," he added.

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Notably, Manjrekar mentioned that Kohli could have given up on ODIs and prioritised working on his Test game, which the likes of Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson have done.

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Notably, Virat ended his Test career with 9230 runs to his name in 123 matches at an average of 46.85 on the back of 31 fifties and 30 centuries. The shocking decision came after a horrible outing with the bat in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India lost 1-3. He continues to be an unstoppable force in the ODI format and will be heading into the New Zealand series on the back of a memorable performance against South Africa. He smashed two centuries and a fifty for his 302 runs as India defeated the Proteas 2-1 in the three-match series.

Virat recently played for Delhi in the Vijay Hazare Trophy to get enough game time, also following the BCCI's diktat to play domestic cricket as per availability. Virat, who is the second top run-getter in the history of the ODI format with 14557 runs in 308 career matches, has already set his eyes on the ODI World Cup 2027.