Senior India stars seek BCCI clarity amid ODI dressing-room confusion; Gill-Gambhir told to take charge: Report

Starting June 13, India will officially begin preparations for the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The build-up starts with a three-match home series against Afghanistan before a tour of England later this year. With the tournament still 17 months away and the core of the playing XI largely settled, there appears little urgency around team selection. However, a fresh report has revealed a bigger concern brewing behind the scenes — a lack of clarity and alignment within India's ODI setup, particularly among the senior players.

Since Gautam Gambhir's appointment as head coach in mid-2024, India's focus has largely been on Test and T20I cricket. While the longer format has been dominated by discussions around results and transition, India have emerged as a powerhouse in T20 cricket, winning the Asia Cup in 2025 and the T20 World Cup earlier this year.

As attention now shifts towards the 50-over format, the ODI setup faces a unique challenge — managing the futures of senior stars such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, both of whom retired from Tests and T20Is during the 2024-25 season but remain central to India's plans for the next World Cup.

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Kohli, 37, capped off a stellar 2025 in ODI cricket as India's leading run-scorer and Player of the Series in the tour of South Africa. However, he will miss the Afghanistan series due to a hamstring injury. Earlier this year, during an appearance on the RCB podcast, Kohli indicated that he had little interest in being part of an environment where he constantly had to prove his worth.

Rohit, meanwhile, enjoyed another productive year in ODIs, finishing as India's second-highest run-scorer in 2025 and earning the Player of the Series award during the tour of Australia. He is expected to return for the Afghanistan series after receiving clearance from the BCCI's Centre of Excellence. Hardik Pandya, another senior figure in India's ODI plans, is reportedly set to miss the series because of injury concerns.

According to a report in The Times of India, there is a growing feeling within the setup that the team management and senior players need greater alignment as preparations for the World Cup gather pace. The report added that some senior cricketers have been regularly engaging with influential figures within the BCCI to seek clarity on India's roadmap leading into 2027. It also stated that Hardik still needs to establish his value as a bowling option in the format.

A BCCI source told the newspaper that Gambhir has not been as actively involved in ODI planning as he has been in Tests and T20Is, while captain Shubman Gill has been urged to assert a stronger voice within the dressing room. With the focus now shifting firmly to the ODI World Cup, both Gill and Gambhir are expected to play a greater role in bridging the gap between the management and the senior players.

"With such big players in the team, Gill needs to have a stronger say in the dressing room. Gambhir hasn't got involved in the planning as intently as he has done in the other two formats. So far, he has let things take its course," the source said.

"Now that the focus has shifted on the preparation for the ODI World Cup, one may expect Gambhir and Gill to take charge and firmly communicate their ideas in the dressing room. It's important that the senior players, who have served India with distinction for so many years, are conveyed what role the team expects them to play and the plan for the buildup over the next 16 months," the source added.

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