Chief selector Ajit Agarkar reasoned that it’s very difficult to have three different captains after Shubman Gill replaced Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain. Gill was appointed as the Test captain ahead of the England tour, whereas Suryakumar Yadav leads India in T20Is.

Rohit, who has already announced his retirement from Test and T20Is, was leading India in the 50-overs format. Agarkar said the decision to hand over 50-over leadership to Gill was made with the 2027 World Cup in mind.

Speaking at the press conference announcing the limited-overs squads for the Australia series, Agarkar explained: “Obviously, at some stage you’ve got to start looking at where the next World Cup is. It’s also a format which is played the least now. So, you don’t get that many games to actually give the next guy, or if there is going to be another guy, that much time to prepare himself or plan.

“And we’re two years away still. It might look like a long time, but we don’t quite know how many one-day games we might take. Closer to the World Cup, we might end up playing a little bit more than what we have. But the last one-day game we played was, what, 8th or 9th March in the Champions Trophy. And the next one we play is on October 19. So, it is a bit of a challenge with one-day cricket at the moment,” said Agarkar.

“Of course, the focus has been on the T20 World Cup. But slowly we’ll start planning for that World Cup to come. So, as a plan, it gives the next guy enough time to plan with whatever games that we have coming. And it is very difficult to have three different captains for three formats. In terms of not just selectors, but more importantly, even for the coach, to plan with three different people is never easy,” he added.

Gill’s first assignment as an ODI captain will be the three-match ODI series against Australia, which will start on October 19.