Where Does Shubman Gill Rank Among India's Worst Captains After 12 ODIs?

Gill has an average record as India's ODI captain after 12 matches [Source: AFP]

There was a sense of optimism when Shubman Gill was made the Indian ODI captain, last year, but four series later, things have not turned out the way they were supposed to be. Out of the four series Gill has led India in, the team has lost three and has only won against a struggling Afghanistan team.

He has led India in 12 ODI matches, and things have not gone according to his plans, with the latest setback against England. The Men in Blue defeated the English side in the first ODI, but the hosts replied with successive wins to seal the series and further dent Gill’s credibility.

How has Shubman Gill performed as India ODI captain after 12 games? Does he have a better record than MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma? In this piece, we take a look at how every Indian ODI captain has fared after 12 games.

How Indian ODI captains have fared after 12 matches

(Indian captains record after 12 ODIs)

• As the data suggests, Rohit Sharma still holds the best record as India’s ODI captain after 12 matches. His win percentage of 83.34 remains the best amongst all the skippers. The second best on the list is Virat Kohli, who won 9 out of his 12 matches and had a win percentage of 75.
• Surprisingly, Ajay Jadeja, one of the most underrated batters, had the third-best win percentage (66.77), and KL Rahul also has the same numbers.

Indian ODI captains ranked after 12 matches

Rohit Sharma sits in Tier 1 with the best win percentage, followed by Virat Kohli in Tier 2, and then KL Rahul and Jadeja in the next Tier.

Shikhar Dhawan, Virender Sehwag, Dilip Vengsarkar, and Kapil Dev are the next best ODI captains after 12 matches for India.

Shubman Gill is statistically the fourth-worst Indian captain (win percentage 50), and he sits on the same table alongside Suresh Raina, Sourav Ganguly, and Mohammad Azharuddin.

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Statistically, Gavaskar has the worst win percentage, and not-so-surprisingly, even the great Sachin Tendulkar falls down in the list.

Why Gill has so far failed to deliver as ODI captain

Interestingly, the Indian team is going through a transition period, and that has affected Gill’s captaincy. He certainly has two stalwarts on his side with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, but even their place has been under scrutiny.

The selectors have done too much chopping and changing in the ODI setup, and Gill has not had the chance to play with a consistent playing XI; thus, the Indian ODI captain has yet to understand his best XI.

Moreover, too many injuries to key players (Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Nitish Kumar Reddy) have not helped his cause as Gill had to work with players who were not the first choice in the Indian ODI setup.

What Gill can learn from his early failures

It has just been 12 matches, and Gill has enough time to rectify the mistakes and get the win percentage up. He needs to take inspiration from someone like MS Dhoni, who started his ODI tenure with just 5 wins out of 12, and once had a win percentage of 41.67.

But, the legendary captain later went on to win the 2011 World Cup, and also won the Champions Trophy in 2013, and improved his statistics.

The ODI skipper needs to jot down all the mistakes that happened on the UK tour and work on those areas as India needs him to deliver the goods as ODI captain.

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