What wrong has Rohit Sharma done?: Ex-India star accuses Ajit Agarkar of pressurising Shubman Gill into ODI captaincy

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif criticised the Ajit Agarkar-led senior India national selection committee for removing Rohit Sharma as captain in ODIs. Kaif believes Rohit was an ideal candidate to lead India in the 2027 ODI World Cup and that the transition from him to Shubman Gill should have happened post the World Cup.

Gill replaced Rohit as India's captain in ODIs as the BCCI announced India's ODI and T20I squads for their upcoming tour of Australia on Saturday. Explaining the reason behind removing Rohit, Agarkar stressed that the selectors and the team management want to give enough time to build his own team for the 2027 ODI World Cup, which is just two years away.

However, Kaif believes Rohit, who led India to back-to-back ICC titles with memorable triumphs at the T20 World Cup last year and the Champions Trophy earlier this year, could have enjoyed a longer run as captain and led India to more trophies. He also accused the selectors of 'snatching' captaincy away from the senior batter.

"What wrong has Rohit Sharma done? It's very unfortunate that we didn’t get a long captaincy run from Rohit—not even four years," Kaif said in a video on his YouTube channel.

"A great batter, an outstanding leader, and as captain, he could have had an even more impressive record. When you snatch captaincy, I feel a player loses his right hand," he added.

26-year-old Gill has been in the reckoning for captaincy for a while now. He had been touted by many to take over from Rohit once the senior batter was relieved from captaincy. Gill replaced Rohit as India's Test captain earlier this year and led phenomenally well in his first Test series as captain in England, where he helped India pull off a 2-2 draw.

Gill also led from the front with the bat, amassing a whopping 754 runs in the five-match series, the most by an Asian batter in a Test series in England. He shattered multiple records with his stellar sho,w and his performances convinced the selectors of his readiness to take over from Rohit in ODIs as well.

However, Kaif has warned that ODI captaincy can overburden Gill at a young age and can affect his performances with the bat. He also said that the selectors are hurring Gill into captaincy and that the star batter is being pressurised to take over the leadership role, even if he wouldn't have asked for it.

"However, the load falls on Gill. He's getting all of it in a hurry. It could also backfire. When you get so much responsibility in such a short time, it could affect performance," said the former India batter.

"My point is: don’t overburden him. He captains in Tests, bats at No. 4, was made vice-captain in the Asia Cup, and will take over when Suryakumar Yadav steps aside. Now you've made him the ODI captain. I feel everything is being done in a hurry. A player never asks for captaincy.

"Everyone knows he didn't want it. You can't demand it, but everyone seems to like him a lot and considers him a captain for the future. The selectors, including Ajit Agarkar, have pressurised him," Kaif added.

Gill's appointment as India's ODI captain marks a generational shift in Indian cricket as the star batter gears up to become the all-format leader in the future. Gill will be hoping to continue his impressive run as captain when he leads India for the first time in ODIs, in the upcoming three-match series against Australia, which gets underway on October 19.