Gill named Test captain for India's England tour
ChENNAI: Shubman Gill, 25, was on Saturday announced India captain for the upcoming England tour. With two of his most senior counterparts - Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli- retiring from Test cricket recently, the right-hand batter from Fazilka, Punjab was set to take the guard and usher Indian cricket into new era.
Having made his Test debut in 2020, Gill, who will be India's 37th Test captain, has played 32 matches so far scoring 1893 runs including five hundreds.
The announcement was made following a meeting of the senior selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. Rishabh Pant was announced as Gill's deputy for the all-important England series that includes five Test matches.
Tamil Nadu batter B Sai Sudharsan, Arshdeep Singh were given a maiden call-up but pacer Mohammed Shami has been dropped from the squad of 18 due to fitness issue. Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur have made a comeback to the Test squad.
The batting group includes KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Dhruv Jurel, who has been picked as the second wicketkeeper. Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy have been selected as the all-rounders while Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Arshdeep and Prasidh Krishna were picked as the pacers. Kuldeep Yadav is the only specialist spinner in the team.
The series, which will be India's first in the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle, starts on June 20 in Headingley. The last of the five Tests starts at the Oval on July 31.
India’s squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.