2025 Review: Indian cricket team witnesses birth of 'Shubman Gill Era' as Ro-Ko enter final phase of their careers

2024 was a landmark year in Indian cricket – for the right as well as the wrong reasons. While Rohit Sharma helped the Indian team win their first International Cricket Council event in 11 years with the T20 World Cup triumph, he also suffered the ignominy of overseeing India’s first Test series defeat – a 0-3 whitewash that too – on home soil over the course of a similar time span.

The events of 2024 had a profound impact on Indian cricket in 2025, sparking off a period of transition that could define the direction the senior men’s team will be taking in the years to come. The year had its fair share of ups and downs, its fair share of iconic moments and emotional goodbyes and even controversies.

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As the year draws to a close with Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we look back at some of the defining moments and phases of the Indian cricket team and its biggest stars in 2025:

Rohit delivers back-to-back ICC titles

Technically, the Indian men’s cricket team’s journey in 2025 began with a six-wicket defeat in the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney, which completed a 3-1 series victory for the hosts and helped them regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after nearly a decade. But since that tour began back in November, we shall not consider it while discussing the team’s 2025 journey.

The year, instead, begins with a white-ball series against England at home in which Rohit returned to form with a sparkling century in the second ODI in Cuttack after going through a lean patch in the home Tests against New Zealand as well as in the tour of Australia.

The ‘Hitman’ then carried that form over to the ICC Champions Trophy, where India play their matches in Dubai under a ‘Hybrid Model’ after refusing to travel to Pakistan. Rohit and Kohli made key contributions with the bat and play a key role in helping India win a second ICC trophy in less than a year after 11 years without one.

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However, the ‘Mini World Cup’, which returns to action after eight years, also marked the conclusion of the ‘Rohit Sharma Era’, an era in which India scaled unprecedented highs in the white-ball format and were also potent in Tests until the wobble towards the end.

Few, however, were aware of major shift in Indian cricket that was in store.

‘Gill Era’ begins and Ro-Ko’s Test journey ends

Both Rohit and Kohli were under serious pressure in the Test arena after the horror run against New Zealand as well as Australia, and were asked to play domestic cricket along with other senior players in the team if they were to remain in contention for the five-match Test series in England – the first Test assignment of the year. What wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card, however, was the two stalwarts to announcing their retirements in the span of a week in May, a little over a month before the inaugural Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy was to get underway.

Shubman Gill had been a top candidate to succeed Rohit as Test skipper, and his appointment was made official shortly after the two retirement announcements, with Rishabh Pant named his deputy.

A five-match rubber in England, where India had last won a Test series nearly two decades ago, is as daunting as it can get for someone starting his journey as India’s full-time captain. Gill, however, took to the role like duck to water, and highlighted how the burden of leadership did not affect his batting form, rather he thrived in it.

India ended up holding Ben Stokes' England to a 2-2 draw in what proved to be one of the most dramatic series’ in recent memory, and Gill was the standout performer by a country mile with 754 runs after scoring four centuries, nearly breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s record for most runs by an Indian in a Test series.

The impressive manner in which Gill conducted himself in his maiden series as Test captain gave the team management and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee the confidence to name him ODI captain as well, keeping the 2027 ICC World Cup in mind.

The announcement thus brought the curtains down on the Rohit’s reign as India captain, with his match-winning 76 in the final against New Zealand proving to be his final act as a leader in any form of the game.

The two veterans bounce back in style

With Rohit and Kohli no longer leading the team, they were no longer immune to bold selection calls. And given they’re in their late thirties and in the twilight of their careers, there were questions over whether they even were part of coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar’s plans for the 2027 World Cup in South Africa.

In one press conference, Agarkar even claimed that “both Rohit and Virat are noncommittal about the World Cup” while discussing Gill’s elevation to ODI captaincy, leading to speculations that the two superstars would be given a farewell sometime in 2026 and that the Men in Blue would move on real quick in their preparation for the World Cup.

Agarkar made the comment before India’s white-ball tour of Australia, in which the three-match ODI series was something of a litmus Test for Ro-Ko’s future with the Indian team. The two were off to a disastrous start in the tour opener in Perth, and while Rohit scored a scratchy fifty in the second game in Adelaide, Kohli registered back-to-back ducks for the first time in ODIs.

Rohit and Kohli, however, highlighted that they are made of sterner stuff, and that they were not going to give up on their dream of lifting the ICC World Cup together so easily. The two silenced their doubters with a vintage unbroken 168-run partnership in the third one-dayer in Sydney, in which Rohit slammed 121 and Kohli 74.

The two would carry on from where they left off during the next ODI assignment, against South Africa at home, only this time the roles were reversed. Kohli slammed back-to-back centuries while Rohit chipped in with a couple of fifties. Rohit had won the Player of the Series award in Australia and the same went to Kohli after a 2-1 series win over South Africa at home.

In the span of a couple of months, Ro-Ko showed just how committal they were for the World Cup.

Coach Gambhir continues to face scrutiny

Gambhir, meanwhile, has had quite the roller-coaster ride as head coach ever since he succeeded Rahul Dravid in the role in July last year. While Rohit was also to share the blame for the team’s Test fortunes nosediving towards the end of 2024, ‘GG’ found himself cornered with the spotlight almost entirely on himself after India suffered a 0-2 sweep at the hands of South Africa last month.

It was the second time in the span of a year that the Indian team, which had not lost a Test series for more than a decade and had made a fortress out of its home, suffered a whitewash in its own backyard. And while the five Tests against New Zealand and South Africa have had different captains, coach Gambhir has been the common link between the two disasters.

The fiesty former India opener only made things worse for himself with his rant in the post-match press conference after the Proteas thrashed the Rishabh Pant-led hosts by 408 runs. Gambhir got defensive after seeing fingers being pointed towards him, and began to claim credit for the Champions Trophy triumph as well as the Asia Cup, despite the fact that those tournaments had been played in entirely different formats.

More than a year has passed by since Gambhir was named head coach after mentoring Kolkata Knight Riders to their third title in the Indian Premier League. The 44-year-old, however, is yet to command the kind of respect that his predecessors Dravid and Ravi Shastri did from the Indian cricket fraternity – whether ex-cricketers or fans.

And while he continues to enjoy the BCCI’s support, Gambhir will be the first to admit he’s treading on thin ice at the moment, and needs a drastic change of fortune in 2026 if he is to extend his contract beyond 2027.

Surya’s boys continue to shine bright

While the discussion on Indian cricket in 2025 primarily revolved around four key individuals – Gill, Gambhir Rohit and Kohli – it was the Suryakumar Yadav-led T20I side that went from strength to strength this year and signed off without losing a single series for the second year running.

After thrashing England 4-1 at home before the Champions Trophy, India would return to action in the 20-over format seven months later during the Asia Cup, where SKY and Co won the trophy by winning all the seven matches, completing a hat-trick of wins against arch-rivals Pakistan.

What was even more impressive was the fact that they ended up on the winning side more often than not despite Gill’s entry as vice-captain somewhat disturbing what was a settled team firing on all cylinders. Surya and Co would go on to beat Australia 2-1 Down Under and recently overpowered the Proteas 3-1 in their final assignment of the year.

And it was in the T20I format in which Indian cricket ended the year on a dramatic note – with Gill being left out of the T20 World Cup squad on Saturday despite being named Surya’s deputy only recently and being groomed as India’s next all-formats captain.

The team management’s attempt to shoehorn him into the T20I batting order resulted in the break-up of the successful Sanju Samson-Abhishek Sharma opening combination, and Gambhir and Agarkar perhaps realised their mistake and went back to the tried-and-tested combination, though the announcement did send shockwaves across the Indian cricket community.

The announcement, however, was the perfect conclusion to what was a dramatic year for the Indian cricket team, setting the stage for India’s defence of their T20 World Cup title early next year.