Shubman Gill named India Test captain; squad for England tour announced

The BCCI have announced that Shubman Gill has been appointed India's new Test captain following the retirement of Rohit Sharma.

Gill will be supported by Rishabh Pant, who has inherited vice-captain duties ahead of Jasprit Bumrah, who was overlooked for the captaincy role due to concerns over his availability and fitness.

Gill's first assignment as captain will be to lead India in a five-Test series against England at the end of June.

The tour is set to mark the beginning of a new chapter for Indian Test cricket following the retirements of stalwarts Sharma and Virat Kohli, with the latter deciding the time was right to bring the curtain down on a decorated career in the longest format of the game.

After announcing Gill's appointment, the chairman of India's selection panel, Ajit Agarkar, said: "Obviously you discuss every option that's there. Over the last year or so, we have looked at Shubman at various times.

"Even when we played England last year. You take a lot of feedback from the dressing room as well.

"He's very young. We've seen the improvement - I know it's T20 cricket for GT - but we take feedback from a lot of people. We're hopeful we've picked the right guy. He's a terrific player and our best wishes for him.

"You don't pick captains for one or two tours," Agarkar added.

We want to invest in something that's going to help us going forward.

"You're always hoping that it's the right call. We've seen some progress over the last year or two with him.

"There's no doubt that it is going to be as tough as it gets, in a five-match series in England. Maybe he will have to learn on the job a little bit. But we're very confident with what he has to offer and that's the reason we have picked him."

News of Gill's captaincy role coincided with the announcement of the 18-man squad to face England and there were maiden Test call-ups for Arshdeep Singh and Sai Sudharsan, who have both excelled in the Indian Premier League this year.

A slot has also been awarded to Karun Nair, whose last Test match for India was all the way back in 2017.

India have reinforced their pace unit in the wake of Mohammed Shami's injury absence as Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj will be accompanied by Arshdeep, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Shardul Thakur.

Kuldeep Yadav has been named the lone specialist spinner.

India squad for the 2025 Tour of England

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

Jaquob Crooke

• India Men's Cricket Team
• • 
  •