IND vs AFG: Shubman Gill wins first ODI series as captain; equal to Rohit Sharma’s performance
NEW DELHI: Shubman Gill celebrated his first ODI series win as India captain after leading the team to a 3-0 clean sweep of Afghanistan. India completed the lime series with a dominant nine-wicket win in the third ODI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.The series win is a significant milestone for Gill, whose previous ODI missions as captain against Australia and New Zealand ended in defeats. Gill also enjoyed a great run with the bat. After guiding India to a 300-run victory over Afghanistan in the one-off Test, he followed it up by leading the team to a 3-0 ODI series triumph.The 26-year-old finished as the series’ highest run-scorer with 238 runs in three matches at an average of 238.00 and a strike rate of 135.23. His record spanned one century and one half-century.His performances earned him the Player of the Series award – the sixth such award in his ODI career.
Most Player of the Series awards for India in ODIs
- Sachin Tendulkar – 15
- Virat Kohli – 11
- Sourav Ganguly – 7
- Yuvraj Singh – 7
- MS Dhoni – 7th
- Rohit Sharma – 6
- Shubman Gill – 6
Reflecting on the series, Gill was pleased with how India executed their plans.“A lot of boxes are ticked. We talked about keeping the intensity going in the middle overs and some of the things we also talked about was how can we continue to create those opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling unit and as a batting unit, how can we keep pushing for more runs in the middle overs and I think a lot of those boxes have been ticked.”Prasidh Krishna, who claimed his maiden ODI five-wicket haul with figures of 5/23, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored an unbeaten 110, ensured India’s win in Chennai.Gill praised Prasidh and his co-star Gurnoor Brar for their opening spell.“Definitely. I think the first spell played by Gurnoor (Brar) and Prasidh was excellent. It wasn’t easy to see that kind of pace in those conditions. But I think they kept trying and kept pushing. I mean, you’re definitely tempted to give them that one extra, but when I looked at the weather I asked them if they wanted to play that extra, but they were pretty exhausted.”India’s next challenge is a three-match ODI series in England from July 14-19. Gill believes the conditions there will provide useful preparation for the 2027 ODI World Cup. “If we go to England, the conditions would be a bit more like what we get in South Africa, not exactly like it, but still close. So that’s the combination we’d like to play there, hopefully we’ll have all the players fit and ready, it’ll be another great series for us.”