Is Rohit Sharma deliberately underperforming to burden Shubman Gill? Sunil Gavaskar opens up

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar responds to the viral claim that Rohit Sharma is deliberately underperforming to undermine new ODI captain Shubman Gill. Find out what Gavaskar said.

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Former Indian captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on rumours of former Indian skipper Rohit Sharma intentionally under-performing to burden the new captain, Shubman Gill, in the ongoing three-match ODI series against Australia.

Writing his column for The Sportstar, Gavaskar asserted that no player would intentionally underperform when their own place in the team is at stake. Notably, Rohit is making his comeback to the international arena for the first time since March 2025.

"Over the years, a significant misconception among Indian cricket fans is that if a player is replaced as captain, he will attempt to undermine the new captain by not performing to the best of his ability. Nothing can be further from the truth, for the simple fact is that if a captain has been replaced and then doesn’t perform, he could be out of the team altogether. So, no player, however aggrieved he may feel at losing the captaincy, is ever going to underperform deliberately," Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Sportstar.

Furthermore, the former Indian opener also made it clear to the Indian cricketing fraternity that both the Indian talismanic batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would do everything possible to ensure a smooth transition. 

"With that misconception still going strong, many are questioning if young Shubman Gill will be able to handle two former captains, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who are part of the three-match One-Day International series against Australia. Gill has gone out of his way to say that his equation with them hasn’t changed simply because he is the captain now. If anything, he will only benefit by having these two stalwarts by his side. Both would be happy to offer suggestions if asked, and what could be better for a captain leading in this format for the first time than to have two of the greatest ODI players playing in his team?" he wrote.

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