Gill Questions New Zealand Tour Order as India Prepare for Auckland ODI Opener

Shubman Gill has questioned the ordering of India's tour of New Zealand, saying he would rather have played the one-day series before the Twenty20 matches. Speaking ahead of the first ODI at Eden Park in Auckland on Wednesday, the India captain explained that the current sequence, five T20Is followed by five ODIs and then two Tests, has forced the team management to protect players rather than field its strongest side throughout. Gill will lead India for the first three ODIs before stepping aside to prepare for the Test series beginning in Wellington on November 19, with Shreyas Iyer taking over for the final two matches in Mount Maunganui. Jasprit Bumrah, the most prominent absentee, has been rested from the entire white-ball leg with the red-ball assignment in mind, a decision former New Zealand paceman Shane Bond defended as sensible workload management rather than picking and choosing. India won the T20I series 3-2 despite losing the last two games, and Gill argued that playing the ODIs first would have allowed a full-strength, World Cup-focused group to play all five matches. With the ODI World Cup set for October and November 2027 and a World Test Championship final the following June, every selection call on this tour carries a longer shadow than the series itself.