Will Shubman Gill bounce back in his 'best format' against New Zealand?

Shubman Gill has the fourth-highest ODI average and holds the record for the quickest to 2,000 runs in the format.

Shubman Gill reinvented himself in the longest format of the game in 2025. No one scored more runs and registered more hundreds in Test cricket than him. The decision to name him as India’s Test captain proved to be correct.

White-ball struggles in 2025

But the red-ball prowess came at a cost. Gill’s willow went silent in T20I cricket, and his ODI numbers weren’t up to his standards. After starting the year with 2 fifties and 2 hundreds in 4 innings, Gill managed to score just 130 runs in the last 7 innings of the year. This included scores of 10, 9, and 24 in his maiden series as India’s ODI captain in Australia.

The less we talk about Gill’s performance in T20Is, the better. He enters the India vs New Zealand ODI series after getting dropped for the T20 World Cup 2026, out of runs in white-ball cricket, and dealing with injuries in the second half of last year.

There’s no question that ODI cricket is Gill’s best format. You don’t just average 56.36 by mistake. Despite an underwhelming year by his standards, he still ended 2025 with an average of 49 in 50-over cricket. The New Zealand series couldn’t have come at a better time.

ODIs not easy: Shubman Gill

Gill seems to have mastered ODIs, but he realises the format isn’t easy. The Indian captain was posed the question on the eve of the Vadodara ODI and stated that one needs resilience, persistence, and determination to do well in the format.

“I don’t think any format is easy. If you look at it, the Indian cricket team hasn’t won a World Cup since 2011, so if it was that, he would be winning (the) World Cup every second year. It’s easy to say, but I don’t think any format is easy; it requires a lot of resilience and a lot of persistence and a lot of determination to be able to win big ICC tournaments,” Gill told reporters at the BCA Stadium.

No mental baggage

Gill was brought into the T20I team for the 2025 Asia Cup. But after underwhelming performances in the next couple of months, the selectors dropped him for Ishan Kishan. Mind you, he wasn’t just India’s opener but also deputy to Suryakumar Yadav.

To miss a home T20 World Cup won’t be easy. Especially considering that Gill wasn’t part of the 2024 winning team either. But he isn’t perturbed by the decision. In fact, the 26-year-old has made peace. Coming into the India vs New Zealand ODI series, he isn’t carrying any mental baggage.

“Being a sportsperson, it’s all about being in the present. The more (in the) present you are, even when you are on the field, the more you are not thinking about what’s going to happen or what has happened in the previous moment, and it gives you more chances of succeeding. I try to look at what I need to do now and what is important. The more we can be in the present moment, it makes our life more simpler, and if you make your life simpler, it’s a much more peaceful and happier space that you would want to be in,” he added.