Anil Kumble backs Jasprit Bumrah over Shubman Gill as India’s next ODI captain

Former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble has put his weight behind Jasprit Bumrah as India’s next ODI captain ahead of Shubman Gill. In the ongoing Champions Trophy, Gill is Rohit Sharma’s deputy whereas Bumrah was ruled out of the tournament with a lower back injury.

Bumrah led India in two Test matches on the Australian tour, in which the team won one and lost one. The gun fast bowler has performed consistently in all three formats of the game and bagged 32 wickets in five Test matches against Australia at an average of 13.06.

On the other hand, Shubman Gill has been in terrific form in ODIs in the recent past and scored a match-winning knock of 101 runs off 129 balls in the Champions Trophy clash against Bangladesh at Dubai on Thursday. Gill also scored 259 runs in three ODIs against England at 86.33.

While Gill leads Gujarat Titans in the IPL, Bumrah plays for Mumbai Indians. Gill had also led in five T20Is against Zimbabwe after T20 World Cup 2024.

“Shubman is already in the leadership group, and eventually he will get to that captaincy. Now whether it will be immediately after Rohit leaves one-day cricket, or else Bumrah will come in, which is the automatic choice both for Test match cricket and the ODI format, because you hardly play ODIs now,” Kumble said on ESPN Cricinfo.

“If you look at white-ball cricket, although the next World Cup is 2027, in between 2023 and now, we have hardly played one-day cricket. It’s mostly been T20 format, where Suryakumar Yadav is already the captain. So, when you look at ODI format, to sort of look at Bumrah, and preserve him because he is very valuable, and try to utilize him for important tournaments. So, I think Bumrah will become the natural choice, but Shubman won’t be far behind,” he added.

Meanwhile, when Rohit Sharma was asked about his successor, he said the young players should earn it but before that he wants them to play hard-fought cricket.