Rohit Sharma’s tenure as India’s captain came to an end on Saturday. Four years after taking over from Virat Kohli and transforming the way India approached white-ball cricket, it is time for the batting great to step back. Shubman Gill, long projected as the next big thing in Indian cricket, has been handed the captain’s armband in ODIs-just four months after assuming charge of the Test side.
The selection committee’s bold call has surprised many. Rohit ended India’s 11-year wait for an ICC trophy, leading the team to T20 World Cup glory in 2024 and following it up with a Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year. Many believed such success would guarantee him a run as captain until 2027.
Yet the writing had been on the wall ever since Rohit retired from Test cricket midway through the Indian Premier League. For him-and for Kohli, who stunned the world by quitting the longest format before the England tour – it was always going to come down to match readiness. Both are now active in only one of the three formats, and that too in ODIs, the least-played format in a calendar dominated by T20Is and franchise leagues.
Rohit is 38. By the time the 2027 ODI World Cup arrives, he will be 40. While his class and ability to dominate the best are beyond question, there is no guarantee that touch and form will remain constant, especially with only a handful of ODIs expected in the lead-up. Two years may sound long, but India might not play more than 20 one-dayers during that period.
That is why Ajit Agarkar and his selection committee, backed by Gautam Gambhir’s management team, deserve credit. Their decision is both bold and pragmatic. They appear determined to avoid the abruptness that followed Rohit and Kohli’s Test retirements earlier this year. This time, the baton has been passed with two years to spare – a planned handover rather than a forced one.
As India ushers in a generational shift with Gill leading the one-day side towards 2027, Rohit faces perhaps the most demanding transformation of his career yet: from captain to mentor, from front-runner to elder statesman.
THE ROHIT REVOLUTION
To understand why Rohit’s next act matters, one must first appreciate just how path-breaking his captaincy has been. For years, India’s white-ball cricket was defined by numbers and caution. The team seemed trapped in the MS Dhoni-era template-efficient and result-oriented, but increasingly outdated by 2019.
England had already staged a white-ball revolution under Eoin Morgan, embracing a fearless brand of cricket built on collective aggression. Personal milestones were irrelevant; the outcome was everything. Even if half the batting line-up made brisk 30s and 40s, a 300-plus total was assured.
India, by contrast, still obsessed over averages while the rest of the world was embracing strike rates as the new currency. It is a mindset hard to shed in Indian cricket, where the system-from childhood coaching to senior levels-drums in the mantra: ‘make it count, score hundreds’. Numbers are the ticket to survival amid fierce competition.
But white-ball cricket was evolving, and Rohit Sharma recognised it.
The pivotal moment came in 2022, after India’s tame T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to England. Rohit acknowledged that a fear of failure was holding the batters back. India huffed and puffed to 168 for 8; England chased it down in 16 overs without losing a wicket.
The difference in attitude between the sides was stark. Rather than wait for younger batters to fix it, Rohit took ownership. At 36, he reinvented himself – abandoning the comfort of accumulation for an aggressive, front-loaded approach that set the tempo from the top.
It was a stunning reversal of the usual ageing curve. Most veterans conserve; Rohit attacked. His strike rate leapt above 100 across formats. He began pulling and lofting in the powerplay – sometimes falling early, but sending a louder message: aggression was the new orthodoxy.
Rohit had already found incredible success with the “start slow, explode later” template, producing three double hundreds in ODIs. By consciously taking on the aggressor mantle, he became the cornerstone of India’s white-ball rebirth. Months later, India would claim a T20 World Cup, and then decimate opposition in the Champions Trophy, reinforcing the potency of his philosophy. Even India’s dominant run in T20Is under Suryakumar Yadav is an extension of the template Rohit set.
FROM CAPTAIN TO MENTOR?
For Rohit, this is not exile. It is evolution – a transformation mirroring Dhoni’s arc eight years earlier. When Dhoni relinquished the white-ball captaincy in 2017 but continued to play under Virat Kohli, he served as tactical conscience, late-order stabiliser, and cultural anchor. Rohit can do the same for Gill: steadying the new leader while shaping the team’s soul.
Rohit’s bond with Gill will shape the dressing room. Joint planning sessions, open dialogue, and shared strategy discussions can make the transition seamless. With Kohli also moving into a senior-batter role, India enjoys a rare luxury: a top order with a thousand games’ worth of experience mentoring a young captain.
Still, such transitions test ego and patience. Public perception will dramatise every gesture: a smile mistaken for disapproval, a tactical suggestion framed as interference. Rohit’s greatest challenge will be to embrace invisibility – to influence without overt power, to mentor without authority.
He has endured similar situations with Mumbai Indians, stepping aside as Hardik Pandya took the baton. Adaptability has always been his hallmark. In 2022, he broke his own batting habits; now he must break the captain’s instinct to control. Harder than any cover-drive, the reward could be even greater: ensuring his philosophy survives beyond his captaincy.
A MASTERSTROKE?
For India, this dual-generation arrangement could prove a masterstroke. Gill brings freshness; Rohit brings gravitas. Between them lies continuity. Managed correctly, it could mirror the Dhoni-Kohli model of 2017-2019: an outgoing leader anchoring culture while the new one experiments. Dhoni did it quietly, almost invisibly. Rohit possesses the temperament to do the same.
Rohit’s legacy is already secured: five IPL titles, a T20 World Cup, a Champions Trophy, and more than 10,000 ODI runs. Yet his deeper imprint is attitudinal. He has shown that aggression and intelligence can coexist; that leadership is about challenging norms, not preserving comfort.
If he can now embrace mentorship, Rohit will achieve something rarer still—leadership without a title. Imagine it: Rohit at 40, standing beside Gill as India lift the World Cup-smiling not as captain, but as architect of the team’s ethos. That would be a full-circle moment worthy of Indian cricket’s most path-breaking leader.
