Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri backed the decision to make Shubman Gill the ODI captain, despite the veteran duo of Virat Kohli and
Rohit Sharma still being active as well. Gill’s first series as ODI skipper will be the upcoming three-match series in Australia, starting in Perth on October 19 as well.

Talking about Gill, Shastri said on the LisTNR Sport podcast: “They are looking at the future and this is what Australia did really well in the past. They wouldn’t wait till a player starts failing. They’ll be proactive like you saw with Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist, similarly Dean Jones to Steve Waugh. So India are looking ahead two years from now. Gill respects both Rohit and Virat, having played under both of them.”

“Unless there is a series scheduled in Australia before the 2027 World Cup, this will be their ( RoKo) last time in Australia. That’ll be their last tournament ( 2027 World Cup). They are giants and will want to go out on their terms. And they’ll not want to hang around. If they are not up to it in terms of hunger and fitness, they’ll go just like they left Test cricket and T20Is,” he shared.

However, Ravi Shastri admitted to challenging even the star players during his time as head coach, considering the hero-worship culture in India and the lack of fitness as well.

“You have to challenge even the star players occasionally. Because you have to pull through in one direction so that had to be set early. That it’s we and not I. In India, there’s a lot of hero worship. There’s a lot of individual records that count so we said, ‘To hell with all that’. It is what the team does and a team victory counts more than anything else. You might get five 100s in the series but if you lose or don’t compete in the series, it’s pointless,” said Shastri.

“Once that message was put across and it started when MS was leading, then everything started falling in place. Even fitness standards had to improve. When you looked at Australia, England, or New Zealand, we were way behind. So we had to get up there to compete. Otherwise you’ll be kings in your backyard but the moment you go outside, you’ll be smashed. To compete outside, those levels had to rise,” Ravi Shastri concluded.