India is all set to tour England for a five-Test match series as we look ahead in the new era of Indian cricket after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
As captain Sharma decided to call it a day ahead of the series, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and co. had a huge task on hand to name a new Test captain while keeping the future in mind.
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A few names like Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were being thrown before the team of selectors eventually landed upon the name of Shubman Gill as the face of the Indian Test team.
Agarkar revealed why Gill was picked over the likes of Rahul and Bumrah:
"You don't pick captains for 1-2 tours, you want to invest in something going forward. We've seen some progress with Gill over the last year. It is going to be tough, but maybe he will have to learn on the job a bit. We are happy with what he has to offer, and that is why we have picked him."
"[Bumrah is] more important to us a player. Once you're managing people, there's a lot that takes out of you. We've had a chat with him, he's okay with it. He knows where his body's at. KL not really [considered], he's captained a while back, he's a quality player and hope he has a big series. With Booms, it was more about his workload management."
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Full list of India's Test captains
The 25-year-old right-handed batter will join an elite list of India's legendary cricketers as the 37th Test captain, taking over the reins from Rohit Sharma.
- C. K. Nayudu (P4, W0, L3, D1)
- Maharajkumar of Viziangram (P3, W0, L2, D1)
- Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi (P3, W0, L1, D2)
- Lala Amarnath (P15, W2, L6, D7)
- Vijay Hazare (P14, W1, L5, D8)
- Vinoo Mankad (P6, W0, L1, D5)
- Ghulam Ahmed (P3, W0, L2, D1)
- Polly Umrigar (P8, W2, L2, D4)
- Hemu Adhikari (P1, W0, L0, D1)
- Datta Gaekwad (P4, W0, L4, D0)
- Pankaj Roy (P1, W0, L1, D0)
- Gulabrai Ramchand (P5, 21, L2, D2)
- Nari Contractor (P12, W2, L2, D8)
- Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (P40, W9, L19, D12)
- Chandu Borde (P1, W0, L0, D0)
- Ajit Wadekar (P16, W4, L4, D8)
- Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan (P5, W0, L2, D3)
- Sunil Gavaskar (P47, W9, L8, D30)
- Bishan Singh Bedi (P22, W6, L11, D5)
- Gundappa Viswanath (P2, W0, L1, D1)
- Kapil Dev (P34, W4, L7, D23)
- Dilip Vengsarkar (P10, W4, L7, D23)
- Ravi Shastri (P1, W1, L0, D0)
- Krishnamachari Srikkanth (P4, W0, L0, D4)
- Mohammad Azharuddin (P47, W14, L14, D19)
- Sachin Tendulkar (P25, W4, L9, D12)
- Sourav Ganguly (P49, W21, L13, D15)
- Rahul Dravid (P25, W8, L6, D11)
- Virender Sehwad (P4, W2, L1, D1)
- Anil Kumble (P14, W3, L5, D6)
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (P60, W27, L18, D15)
- Virat Kohli (P68, W40, L17, D11)
- Ajinkya Rahane (P6, W4, L0, D2)
- KL Rahul (P3, W2, L1, D0)
- Rohit Sharma (P24, W12, L9, D3)
- Jasprit Bumrah (P3, W1, L2, D0)
- Shubman Gill
What is India's squad for England Tour 2025?
Following is the squad selected by Ajit Agarkar and co. for the five-match series in England.
- Shubman Gill (c)
- Rishabh Pant (wk) (vc)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- KL Rahul
- Abhimanyu Easwaran
- Sai Sudharsan
- 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