While Gill’s maiden series as Test captain ended on a high, with India drawing the 5-Test series in England 2-2 for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy, his debut as ODI skipper was a letdown as Australia sealed the three-match series with a 2-0 lead. The road ahead is full of challenges, especially in ODIs, with not many one-day international games lined up between now and 2027.

“It takes time for any new captain, now, for Gill, he has Rohit Sharma, a proven leader, playing under him. Gill also knows that Rohit Sharma has not done anything wrong as a captain. He was removed from captaincy. When Gill goes to sleep in his hotel room, he must be thinking that Rohit bhai has not done anything wrong. He must be feeling the guilt inside, ‘that people are backing me, but think about Rohit bhai, he did so well and won trophies, but even after that, he was removed, and I was named captain’,” Kaif said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Although Rohit and Virat Kohli have dominated discussions, Kaif wants to consider Gill, who is new to the leadership role. Captaining all three formats and the Gujarat Titans in the IPL is no easy task, and to monitor two legends on top of that will make it a challenging period for Gill. To make matters worse, Gill’s bat hasn’t fired since the Asia Cup, so there’s that as well.

“So, considering everything — fatigue, travel, playing so many matches on the trot, and having the task of captaining Rohit and Kohli, it will take time. This is a transition phase for Gill as ODI captain. Whenever he leads Rohit and Kohli, he will feel nervous. So this is a time where the runs are not coming from the bat, and we lost a bilateral ODI series, I don’t even remember when we lost a bilateral series. So, all of this has happened under his captaincy, and this had to happen,” added Kaif.