Rough patch! Gill sets unwanted record as captain

• Gill's poor ODI form vs. Australia: 14.33 average, lowest for India captain in series.
• Gill named vice-captain for T20Is vs. Australia under Suryakumar Yadav's captaincy.
• India faces Australia in T20Is, then South Africa and New Zealand in multi-format series.

Shubman Gill did not have a series to remember with the bat against Australia, as he registered scores of 10, 9 and 24 in the three games. 

Gill's scores

meant his average turned out to be a meagre 14.33. His average as ODI captain against Australia stands even lower than that of Sourav Ganguly in 2001 (18.60) and MS Dhoni in 2016 (17.20). It is now the lowest average for an ODI captain for India in a series against the Aussies.

After the third match of the recent ODI series against Australia, Gill had addressed the point of his white-ball form. He spoke that lean patches are normal for batters to experience and that he was not worried of the way he was batting.

Meanwhile, Gill has been in fine red-ball form of late. He emerged as the top-scorer during the five-Test tour of England, scoring 754 runs in 10 innings. He then also scored one fifty (50) and one hundred (129*) against West Indies in the two-match series at home.

However, the 26-year-old did not have the best of Asia Cup 2025. He was recalled to India's T20I squad and appointed as the vice-captain of the Suryakumar Yadav-led unit. While his opening partner Abhishek Sharma starred in the tournament, Gill could manage only 127 runs in seven matches.

Gill will now be the deputy skipper to Suryakumar in India's five-match T20I series against Australia. The 20-over leg of the series is scheduled to commence from October 29 in Canberra.

India have a packed scheduled in the next few months. After the white-ball series against Australia concludes on November 8, they will host South Africa for an all-format series comprising two Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is. They will then take on New Zealand at home in an eight-match series, which will consist of three ODIs which will be followed by five T20Is.