Team India's Toss Curse: 18 Matches Without Win, Shubman Gill's Hat-trick Of Losses, Rohit Sharma's Unwanted Record

India’s run of bad luck at the toss continued, with Shubman Gill losing his third straight toss as ODI captain in Sydney against Australia on October 25. The defeat extended India’s record to an unprecedented 18 consecutive toss losses in one-day internationals the longest streak in cricket history.

The unwanted run began on November 19, 2023, in the World Cup final at Ahmedabad when Pat Cummins called correctly against Rohit Sharma. Nearly two years later, not even a change in captaincy has turned India’s fortunes around at the coin flip. Rohit Sharma still holds the record for most toss losses by a captain in ODI history with 18 between November 2023 and March 2025, surpassing Brian Lara’s streak of 12 consecutive losses from 1998 to 1999.

Shubman Gill looks to avoid whitewash as ODI skipper

Gill’s first series in charge has been far from ideal, with three toss losses and two defeats already sealing a series loss to Australia after setbacks in Perth and Adelaide. In Sydney, though, Gill didn’t seem to mind losing the toss and being asked to bowl either.

“We would have bowled first. We got what we wanted. We had just enough runs on the board (in the last match). You’ve got to take your chances. In the end, they played well." he said.

India, made two changes to the team for the dead-rubber, dropping pacer Arshdeep Singh for Prasidh Krishna and bringing in attacking spinner Kuldeep Yadav for all-rounder Nitish Rana.

At the time of writing Australia were 67/1 with Travis Head dismissed by Mohammed Siraj

India playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna