Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair get picked for India side with Gill to lead the squad and Rishabh Pant the vice-captain.
Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair in India’s Test squad for England tour.
B Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur have returned for the five-match series in England that begins on June 20, while Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh have been selected for the first time in India’s Test team.
At a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday, the selection panel chaired by Ajit Agarkar named 25-year-old Shubman Gill the new Test captain of India, leading the 18-man squad. Jasprit Bumrah, who was India’s vice-captain during the recent tour of Australia, was not selected for the captaincy, according to Agarkar, since he was unlikely to play all five Test matches in England because of workload management.
After making dismal performances during the previous season, particularly in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, Rohit Sharma resigned from the format in May. Gill took his place. Rishabh Pant was named the team’s vice-captain.
Along with Gill, Pant, Sudharsan, and Nair, the batting group also consists of Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and Abhimanyu Easwaran. The second wicketkeeper is Dhurv Jurel.
Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Ravindra Jadeja are the team’s four all-rounders (two pace, two spin).
The sole specialist spinner in the 18 is Kuldeep Yadav, while the other five are Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, and Arshdeep.
This is India’s first Test series since Rohit, R Ashwin, and Virat Kohli retired, and Mohammed Shami was not included in the team. In his recuperation from the ankle surgery he underwent in February of last year, Shami has not yet increased his activity to Test match levels.
Only two players from the original Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad were left off for the England tour: Sarfaraz Khan and Harshit Rana. Devdutt Padikkal and Tanush Kotian, who replaced him during India’s tour of Australia, were also left off the roster.
India’s first five Test matches in the 2025–2027 World Test Championship cycle will be against England. The Test matches are played at Headingley (starting on June 20), Edgbaston (starting on July 2), Lord’s (starting on July 10), Old Trafford (starting on July 23), and The Oval (starting on July 31).
Between June 13 and 16, they play India A for four days at Beckenham, which is outside of London, to start the tour.