Gill steals a march in race for the next test captain after Rohit Sharma’ sudden test retirement announcement yesterday.
Gill steals a march as the frontrunner to replace Rohit Sharma as the full-time Test captain starting with India’s Test tour of England.
Since it became clear that Jasprit Bumrah, who led the team in the two Tests Rohit missed and served as vice-captain of the Test team during India’s Test tour of Australia, would probably miss a few Tests in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) cycle due to workload management, Gill’s rise is thought to have become inevitable.
Later this month, the selection panel, which is chaired by Ajit Agarkar, is anticipated to select the team. Since that series marks the beginning of India’s second World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, it is known that the selectors are looking for a skipper with a long-term perspective, which makes 25-year-old Gill the ideal choice.
After Rohit declared his intention to retire from Test cricket on Wednesday, the question of who would replace him in the team emerged. In December 2024 and January 2025, when Rohit had missed two of the five Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia, Bumrah, the team’s designated vice-captain, led the team. He was at home for his child’s birth for the first Test of the series and “stood down” for the final.
However, Bumrah’s workload as the all-format leader of India’s fast-bowling attack and the fact that he missed the first few IPL 2025 matches due to a stress-related lower back ailment that he only recently recovered from during that final Test in Australia have worried the team’s management and selectors.
Virat Kohli was the long-term captain prior to Rohit taking over, while KL Rahul has led in three Test matches among the players who were in the lineup in the Sydney Test, the last time India played in the format.
In mid-2024, Gill was selected captain of a team that was missing several first-choice players after India’s victory in the previous T20 World Cup. He led the team in five T20Is, but he has never led in Test matches or ODIs.
Over the past few months, there have been rumours that Gill was being prepared for the top position, and his performance as the Gujarat Titans’ (GT) captain and batter in the current IPL season has been outstanding.
Since his debut in Melbourne in December 2020, when he struck 45 and 35 not out against a full-strength Australia bowling attack in a Test India victory by eight wickets captained by Ajinkya Rahane, Gill has been a consistent member of the India Test side. He has played 32 Tests overall, scoring 1893 runs at an average of 35.05 with five centuries and seven half-centuries.