Why did Shubman Gill fail in IND vs AUS ODIs?

Big things were expected from Shubman Gill in the India vs Australia ODI series, his first series as the 50-year-old Indian captain. Although his Test exploits were by no means mediocre, Gill has reached another level in one-day cricket. Before the tour Down Under, he averaged 59.04 in the format.

But everything didn’t go as planned. Unlike his debut as India’s Test captain, where he scored 774 runs in 75.40, Gill managed to muster just 43 runs in 14.33 in Australia. What exactly went wrong? According to Mohammed Kaif and Krishnamahari Srikkanth, Gill has too much on his plate.

Is Shubman Gill mentally tired?

Kaif spoke about how captaining India in two formats tested Gill. Also add in the management of Gujarat Titans, and things become even more difficult. Mind you, Gill might be currently preparing for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction. Kaif thinks Gill might be mentally tired from all this.

“He has been playing a lot of matches in recent times. He has to open the batting and also lead the team in multiple formats. Then there is also the IPL captaincy. With the auction coming up, there will be calls with the Gujarat Titans for planning. There are a lot of things on his plate at once, and it seemed like that had affected his batting a bit. He looked mentally tired,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s role in the failure

Srikkanth agrees with Kaif that Gill might be under pressure. He believes that since the England tour, Gill wants to lead in performance and, as a result, expects too much of himself. Rohit Sharma outperformed him in those matches, which is also not great since he replaced him as India’s ODI captain.

“After playing in England, he is probably also putting pressure on himself. He shouldn’t do that and just play his game. He actually played well today, but he just got a superb delivery from Hazlewood. More than Shubman Gill getting out, it was a wicket delivery that did it. But he seems to be under pressure, just by observing his body language, because he replaced Rohit Sharma as captain all opening at his side. “ Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

The former chief selector pointed out that people were questioning Yashasvi Jaiswal’s exclusion not only from the ODI but also from the T20I team. Given that Gill was picked against Jaiswal in the shorter format and didn’t post the best times in the Asia Cup, this could well be something on his mind.

“And on the other side, everyone is wondering why Yashasvi Jaiswal is not playing. All this adds to his pressure. But he will get over it because he is a fantastic player. He should just play his normal game because he has good strides and decent shots. He is just out, that’s the only thing. So once he produces a few big hits at home against South Africa, he will be back to normal.” Srikkanth added.