NEW DELHI: Shubman Gill celebrated his first ODI series win as India’s captain after leading the team to a clean sweep of Afghanistan 3-0. India completed the 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 captaincy assignments against Australia and New Zealand ended in defeats. Gill also enjoyed an excellent run with the bat. After leading India to an innings and 300-run victory over Afghanistan in the one-off Test, he went on to lead the team to a 3-0 ODI series triumph.The 26-year-old finished as the top scorer of the series with 238 runs in three matches at an average of 238.00 and a strike rate of 135.23. His tally included one century and one half-century.His performances earned him the player of the series award — the sixth such award in his ODI career.
Awards for the most players of the series 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
Looking back 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 continue to push for extra runs in the middle overs and I think a lot of those boxes are ticked.”India’s victory in Chennai was ensured by Prasidh Krishna, who took his maiden ODI with five wickets with figures of 5/23, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored an unbeaten 110.Gill praised Prasidh and fellow pacer Gurnoor Brar for their opening spell.“Definitely. I think the first spell that Gurnoor (Brar) and Prasidh bowled was outstanding. It wasn’t easy to see that kind of pace in those conditions. But I think they kept putting in their effort and kept pushing. I mean, you’re definitely tempted to give them an extra one, but looking at the time, I asked them if they wanted to give that one extra, but they were pretty exhausted.”India’s next challenge is the 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. “Going to England, the conditions would be a bit more similar to what we have in South Africa, not exactly the same but still close to it. So the combination we would like to play there, hopefully with all the players ready, it will be another great series for us.”
