3/10 for the captaincy of Shubman Gill, the selections of Gautam Gambhir

The Indian cricket team picked up a consolation in the 3rd ODI IND vs AUS to end the series on a high note despite losing the series 2-1. Led by new captain Shubman Gill, the Men in Blue suffered successive defeats in Perth and Adelaide, losing their first series in the 50-over format after the 2025 Champions Trophy. While Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma returned to form, albeit a little too late, captain Gill and coach Gambhir were closely scrutinized for the team selection.

India’s assessment after ODIs in Australia

The series defeat against Australia marks Gambhir’s second as head coach and Gill’s first as ODI captain. Chief among the criticisms leveled at the duo is the exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav for the first two matches. The spinner has been in the form of his life, having performed consistently across all formats, and could have been the X-factor for India in Perth and Adelaide. However, Gambhir’s obsession with all-rounders saw him continue with Nitish Kumar Reddy against Yadav in the playing XI while Harshit Rana had repeated chances.

India lost the 1st ODI IND against AUS, which was a rain draw, by 7 wickets, with Kohli being dismissed for an 8-ball duck and Rohit leaving after scoring only 8 runs. The rest of the Indian batters also perished cheaply, leaving the team in a perilous position. In the end, Australia had a rather comfortable victory in the contest which was reduced to 26 overs. Although the bowlers worked hard, they found little success as Australia dominated proceedings throughout.

In the 2nd ODI IND vs AUS, Kohli was again dismissed for a duck. Meanwhile, Sharma bounced back in form with a valiant knock of 73 runs. Shreyas Iyer (61) did well to help India accumulate more runs while Gill failed again. However, India failed to defend the 265-run target with Australia running away with a 2-wicket victory.

Over the 2 ODIs, Nitish Reddy contributed the bare minimum with the bat and was used the least with the ball. It could easily be pointed out that Gambhir and Gill’s decision to have the all-rounder in the XI purely to increase the batting depth backfired on the team. Meanwhile, Rana was quite expensive with the ball and was also not very skilled with the bat, except for his 24-run cameo in the 2nd ODI.

It took Gambhir and Gill two consecutive defeats to catch up with their playing XI and finally give Kuldeep a chance. Rana recorded his career-best figures of 4/36 in Sydney to help India bowl out Australia for 234 runs. Rohit’s hot form continued from the previous match as he slammed his 50th ODI century while Kohli finally broke free from the shackles of poor form to score his 70th half-century in run chases. In the end, India scored a 9-wicket victory to end the series on a high note. Rohit finished as the leading run-getter for India in the IND vs AUS ODIs. Meanwhile, Rana surprisingly finished as the highest wicket-taker with 6 scalps to his name, despite also being the most expensive.