India capped off an impressive start to the Gautam Gambhir era earlier this week with a 3-0 clean sweep against Sri Lanka in the T20I series. With Suryakumar Yadav at the helm, who only took over the reins in the format from Rohit Sharma a fortnight back, India came out with a new approach towards T20Is, which, although early days, garnered quite some praise from veteran Indian cricketers and experts. However, Rohit chose to reserve his comment on India's new brand of T20I cricket under Gambhir and Suryakumar.

Albeit only a glimpse, the gist of Gambhir's philosophy was on display during the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, where even the top-order batters have to chip in with at least an over of bowling in the build-up to the next T20 World Cup, in 2026, in a bid to offer the captain ample options to select from irrespective of the conditions. In fact, in the final match of the series on Tuesday, Rinku Singh and Suryakumar bowled the last two overs, defending nine runs, while picking up two wickets each. India used 10 bowlers through the course of the series, where nine of them picked up at least a wicket.

On Thursday, ahead of the start of the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Colombo, Rohit, who still remains the skipper in the 50-over format, was asked about Gambhir's approach and Surykumar's captaincy. The senior India opener did not seem quite interested in responding to the query in the pre-match press conference, but eventually said that he would be ready to pass a judgment when the duo can do pull off the approach more consistently.

"It's early days (in his captaincy); I don't want to talk too much about it. He has done a great job, and let him continue doing it. We start jumping into things (judgement) quite quickly, regardless of wins or losses. Let him do things consistently, and then we can talk about it," he said. "It's definitely a good start for them in that format. They played well as a unit, which is what Team India is all about. I'm sure they are heading in the right direction."

'Gambhir different from Dravid, Shastri'

Rohit arrived in Colombo last Sunday, along with KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, and Kuldeep Yadav, but the players only managed to get hit the nets on Wednesday after rain washed out their first two practice sessions. Gambhir later joined the camp after the T20I series ended in Pallekele on Tuesday, and the ODI unit have had two sessions already in the build-up to the final white-ball contest in the tour of Sri Lanka.

Speaking to the media, Rohit also opened up on Gambhir's philosophy and admitted it will be different from his recent predecessors in Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid.

"Gautam Gambhir has played a lot of cricket and he has been involved with franchise cricket also before. Obviously, it is going to be different from the previous support staff. Ravi Shastri was there before Rahul Dravid joined the team, every individual works differently. I know Gambhir for a very long time and we have played a little bit of cricket together. He has a very clear mind and knows what he wants from the team."

The ODI series will mark the beginning of India's preparation for the Champions Trophy next year and is the only contest the team will play in the format in 2024. Their only other ODI series before the ICC tournament will be at home against England, a week before their departure for Pakistan.