Shubman Gill named India Test captain for England tour as Rohit, Kohli exit format

The announcement was made by BCCI selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar in Mumbai on Saturday. Shubman Gill takes over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, who recently retired from Test cricket. With Virat Kohli also stepping away from the format, Gill emerged as the natural choice to lead the team.

Hyderabad: Shubman Gill, who is having a dream run as captain of the Gujarat Titans in the on-going IPL, has been named captain of the Indian team that will tour England next month.

This was announced by the BCCI chairman of selection panel chairman Ajit Agarkar in Mumbai on Saturday.

Gill succeeds Rohit Sharma who announced his retirement from Test cricket and with the other big name of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli, too following him by quitting Test cricket, he was the obvious choice.

The notable absentee in the team is pacer Mohammed Shami who had a disappointing run in the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Expectedly, B. Sai Sudharsan, whoplaying for Gujarat Titans in the IPL is the leading run-getter, gets the nod from the selectors and this was not surprising given the kind of form he was in with the bat and also the technical competence he showed in handling different bowlers in different conditions and with a touch of class.

The five Tests against England will be India’s first in the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle. They play the first Test at Headingley (from June 20), the second at Edgbaston (from July 2), the third at Lord’s (from July 10), the fourth at Old Trafford (from July 23), and the final at The Oval (from July 31).

They begin the tour with a four-day match against India A at Beckenham on the outskirts of London between June 13 and 16.

The team:
Shubman Gill (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Arshdeep Singh